Concept-in-action

KANBAN

Take stock to do the right things now

When you are an ambitious, mission-driven entrepreneur, it is easy to keep adding items to the plan for this year. Most of us overestimate what we can do in a year (even though we don’t want to think we do). The instinct to take on more is great and is part of how you have taken on starting the business, growing the business, adding new team members and new offerings in the business.

Too many items on the go can cause:

  • Confusion on the team,

  • Low morale from not completing or missing timelines on plans and

  • Key items do not get done.

With a larger team, it becomes even more important to have clarity on the the most important this year.

Simplify to succeed

Kanban as a moment to re-focus

KANBAN is not just a method for daily/weekly task management and tracking. KANBAN is a tool within Lean Six Sigma which can be adapted to apply right now to take stock.

It can be used as a point-in-time activity to take stock of:

  • planned activities,

  • in-progress activities and

  • completed activities.

This shows a clear picture of everything so that you can:

  • re-prioritize future planned work,

  • focus on the right work now and

  • celebrate progress!

A clean excel template

To take stock

How to Use:

  1. Download the KANBAN Take Stock Template

  2. Meet with your people or operations manager to ask them to lead this activity. Share this webpage with them :) Agree on a 1-week deadline to come back with a compiled KANBAN and a recommendation.

  3. At a team meeting, introduce this activity and your manager as the lead of this activity. Set a 3-day deadline for the team. This will allow your people/operations manager to follow-up for more information/revisions/additions with the team and still meet their 1-week deadline to you.

  4. Share the template with the team, whether on a shared drive, email or paper form.

  5. Check-in with your manager of this activity every 2 days for an update on progress, answer questions and support navigating obstacles.

  6. In 1 week, your manager provides their recommendation. Their recommendation should include activities to stop, hold until next quarter and any other changes so the team can focus on the important few for this quarter.

  7. Update the team and update your systems. At the next team meeting, update the team on changes and reinforce the importance of focusing for this next quarter to finish the quarter with a bang and how this quarter impacts the next year. Team members can update their individual plans accordingly.

Things to consider:

  • This is a great opportunity for you to lead someone else in being a leader and for them to practice their leadership skills. Your people/operations manager can build relationships and learn prioritization skills by leading gathering the information and providing you with recommendations for new timelines on non-priority items.

  • When you introduce the activity at a team meeting, introduce this activity and your manager as the lead of this activity. Then let them explain the process and expectations. Reinforce the importance.

  • Set a tight timeline - to get this done and to spark energy in the time in an achievable way. It can lead to more energy in their work to get things done.

  • When you check-in with your manager of this activity, encourage the manager to think through if people forgot things but encourage them to not add the missed items. Encourage the manager to follow-up with people to check on those tasks and tell them to add. Being a great manager isn’t about doing tasks for people, it’s about setting the stage and guiding them to do their best work.

  • When it’s ready for your review, this is a great opportunity for your manager to show their leadership skills by giving a concise update on the process then providing a detailed recommendation.

  • Completing this activity means providing an update to the entire team, updating any systems/softwares and reinforcing decisions made in weekly check-ins as people adjust to the current priorities to finish the quarter with a bang!

What success looks like:

  • This quarter, success is…

    • Increased energy on the team,

    • Increased understanding on the team of how work/projects fit together and

    • Completing the top 1-3 MOST important items.

  • For the business overall, success is …

    • Momentum! This 1-week activity can kickstart the enthusiasm to focus and get the right things done now.

    • An empowered people/ operations manager that feels valued, recognized and is experiencing growth in their leadership skills.

    • Results! More results happen over the next year because of this practice of simplifying now to achieve more overall

  • For you the business owner, success is…

    • Less time on the details in the business that you no longer need to be in.

    • More time for your important work on transitioning the business successfully in this next stage of growth.

    • More confidence in your people/operations manager’s ability to grow with the business.

Share this excel template today

Share this template today with your people/ operations manager to reset priorities for this quarter. Taking stock for one week will reap huge benefits over this quarter and beyond. Clean up and reset your current system/software for managing projects. Stop to simplify and focus the team to have an amazing quarter.

“Simplify to succeed”