Understand what makes the business fit for purpose

This is a series of posts from the main topic STATIK (Systems Thinking Approach to Introduce Kanban) wich it’s an exploratory and collaborative approach to implement Kanban. It helps to understand the current demand and dynamics, to design and implement a Kanban work model that allows increasing the efficiency and quality of the service through the culture and techniques of continuous improvement.

Statik Steps

As an iterative approach, STATIK suggests you go through the following steps.

For each identified service:

1. Understand what makes the business fit for purpose
2. Understand sources of dissatisfaction
3. Analyze the source and nature of demand
4. Analyze current delivery capability
5. Model the service delivery workflow
6. Identify and define classes of service
7. Design the Kanban system
8. Socialize design & negotiate implementation

Understanding fit for purpose

Let’s start understanding what’s the purpose of a team, or area where I want to implement Kanban. What the team or area do for satisfying their clients? Does everybody have the same understanding of their purpose?

For facilitating this activity, I start by asking the audience and briefly debate.

• Why does the team exist (from their point of view)?
• What is their routine?
• Who is their customer (or who is consuming their services)?

Then I lead the following activity:

DEFINING THE TEAM PURPOSE STATEMENT

1. Describe WHAT your team does? In five or six words or sentences, write down what your team does, what it delivers or what it produces.
2. WHO are you doing it for? Clarify who your most important stakeholder is by establishing who has most to gain or lose by your success.
3. WHY are we doing what we do? Ask yourself, ‘What is the final impact for the end-user of our product or service?’ In this way, you’re creating a clear thread that shows how what you do is important, and how it impacts the final customer.

Make sure the language in your Team Purpose Statement isn’t marketing speak.

This is an optional step. But I like to do it always. I ask the audience reframing the purpose statement in the ‘Elevator Pitch’ format. Note we already identify the missing parts in the previous activity (What, Who, Why).

ELEVATOR PITCH

Create an elevator pitch by groups, then converge by consent/consensus.

Elevator Pitch format.

So now the team or area is (literally) on the ‘same page’.

Fit for purpose activity outcomes.

If you want to go further this activity, fit for purpose is an entire topic, there’s a book with the same title and also there’s a specific training. Remember that STATIK not only works for implementing Kanban.

Next STATIK's step is Understand sources of dissatisfaction. Or review the main topic STATIK (Systems Thinking Approach to Introduce Kanban).