Lean Software and Systems Conference 2012 Day 0 - Lean Camp and Lean Action Kitchen

I recently attended the 2012 edition of the Lean Software and Systems Conference.  Here's my summary of the pre-conference Lean Camp and Lean Action Kitchen.

Lean Camp
Jim Benson opened the Lean Camp Open Space session which I thought was a good addition to the main conference.

I proposed two sessions:

1. Think Like a Lean Person (The LSSC version of Think Like an Agilist)
2. New Lanchester Strategy for organisational change

The first session I attended was with Jim Benson who happened to propose a similar session about learning the Lean mindset.  I mentioned a model that I learned from Think Like a Commander:

• The classroom teaches you basic facts
• Full-on simulation allows you to exercise strengths
• Deliberate practice allows you to expose and address weaknesses

All three aspects are required to learn.

I also mentioned Derek Muller's (aka Veritasium) PhD thesis about the need to start with misconceptions to avoid people tuning out because they believe they already know the answer and how this will feel uncomfortable.  Learning feels worse than not learning anything.

Session two was a preview run of Russell Healy's Kanban System Design game:

An interesting behaviour that occurred was even though we were able to determine that the larger project was better economically, we were wary enough about unanticipated risks that we avoided starting it until the end.  This behaviour seemed to hold for other players of the game.

Session three was Think Like a Lean Person:

Two concepts that seemed difficult for attendees to understand (which suggests they're the ones I need to focus on):

1. The difference between setting up an environment that learns (i.e., reflective practice) and deliberate practice outside the normal working environment.  The key issue that I wanted to emphasise was the strong tendency to exploit strengths and work-arounds in full simulation or real environments which doesn't allow for much focus on exposing and addressing weaknesses.
2. The difference between the basic facts of Lean, Kanban, Agile versus the cognitive behaviour themes that allows one to adapt effectively to different contexts.

Session four was New Lanchester Strategy for Organisational Change:

I have some blog entries in progress to describe the concept in more detail but the gist of it is to adjust your organisational change tactics based on an assessment of mindshare.

When you are in a position of weaknesses (low mindshare):

• Segment the market - focus on a subset of the organisation or a subset of your overall change
• Stay close to allies
• Engage in "local battles"
• Bleed the strong - undermine and exploit the weak points of the dominant idea
• Bully the weak - replace other alternate ideas that are weaker

When you are in a position of strength (high mindshare):

• Go broad - role models, systems, symbols
• Neutralise and overwhelm competing ideas

What is the organisational change equivalent of superior weapon efficiency that helps overcome numerical mindshare weakness?  That is, what's the equivalent to an "idea bomb"?  We figured that this might be a very successful, high impact pilot project.

A key question with this strategy is how do we know what situation we are in? How do we know if we're in a position of weakness or strength?

Potential answers:

• Sample
• Survey
• Run brown bags or similar events to see how many people show up

Lean Action Kitchen
Jim Benson and Torianne Demaria Berry prepared a series of dishes and linked them to Lean concepts.

I remember having a conversation with someone about how our memories of an experience are more important than what we actually experienced but forget.  Therefore, things like photographs and souvenirs  can be useful to deliberately shape how much we enjoy the memory of our experiences.  Amusingly, I have forgotten her name but she's the one sitting with her back to the camera in the second picture.

The only adjustment I would suggest is to replace the wine pairing with high quality tea pairing.

Overall, Day 0 of LSSC 2012 was quite interesting and memorable.  Worth attending on its own.

Next up: Day 1