lean

Coaching v Mentoring

by Jiten Vara
1 Comment
August 14, 2014July 15, 2022
3 min read

Reading David Lowe’s excellent post The Rowing Coach, got me thinking about the differences between a coach and a mentor, and the role someone like an Agile Coach or Scrum Master may take when working with teams or organisations. Should they purely be a coach, solely be a mentor, or… Read More »Coaching v Mentoring

Acronym Quiz

by David Lowe
May 20, 2014April 7, 2022
1 min read

The Agile and Lean communities love an acronym, but will settle for an initialism if they have to. For clarification, an acronym is when a word is formed from the initial letters of words in a phrase, and is then pronounced as a separate word (for example, BAFTA or WYSIWYG).… Read More »Acronym Quiz

Lean Coffee

by David Lowe
2 Comments
February 27, 2014May 28, 2014
4 min read

Lean Coffee is a gathering of a small number of people who want to discuss lean in an informal setting. The first Lean Coffee was in Seattle in 2009 (organised by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith), but the idea has spread around the world. The format is similar to an… Read More »Lean Coffee

How to get things done

by David Lowe
December 30, 2013July 15, 2022
3 min read

So, you want to make progress in 2014? Perhaps you have a new business venture that you want to start? Perhaps you just want to improve yourself? Either way, chances are that you will run out of steam pretty quickly. However, there is hope. I am highly productive and motivated,… Read More »How to get things done

Upcoming events

by David Lowe
October 17, 2013July 15, 2022
2 min read

October seems to be the time of year for agile and lean events in London. Unfortunately, the two most interesting clash with one another! Lean Kanban UK is shaping up to be a cracking event. Speakers include David J. Anderson, Zsolt Fabok, Mike Burrows, Andy Carmichael, Jim Benson, Håkan Forss, Liz… Read More »Upcoming events

More than the 5 whys?

by David Lowe
1 Comment
October 8, 2013July 15, 2022
3 min read

Sakichi Toyoda (of Toyota fame) developed a problem-solving method that will sound familiar to parents: repeatedly asking “why?”. However, unlike most kids, Toyoda believed that asking ‘why?’ five times led to an understanding of the problem and a solution. People often try to solve problems by addressing causes presented to… Read More »More than the 5 whys?

What is Lean?

by David Lowe
June 14, 2013May 28, 2014
4 min read

“Lean” was first referred to in “The Machine That Changed the World” – a book written in the 1980s by a group of MIT researchers who had spent years studying the global automobile industry. It was used to describe management practices then being used at Toyota. Rather than focus on… Read More »What is Lean?

Why limiting WIP makes sense

by David Lowe
June 7, 2013May 28, 2014
1 min read

(updated with revised video on 7 October 2013) When I first got into Kanban, I really struggled to get my head around why limiting work in progress (WIP) made sense. The ‘experts’ were telling me that, by reducing the amount of work we were doing, we’d also reduce the time… Read More »Why limiting WIP makes sense

Agile on the Beach announces speakers

by David Lowe
May 24, 2013May 28, 2014
2 min read

I’ve secured a place to talk at Agile on the Beach on 5-6 September. This 2-day conference, hosted in Falmouth, comprises 30 UK and International agile speakers and brings together 200 people to explore, evolve and find out what it means to be truly agile and lean in business; from… Read More »Agile on the Beach announces speakers

Why multi-tasking is for losers

by David Lowe
April 4, 2013May 28, 2014
2 min read

Until I started focusing on how much our team was working on at any one time (i.e. Work In Progress or “WIP”), as a result of us using Kanban, I didn’t realise just how much of our world is affected by poor flow and how Kanban could help us in… Read More »Why multi-tasking is for losers