Evolve or die with A3 thinking and popcorn flow

written, illustrated
and performed by
Claudio Perrone
agilesensei.com
a3thinker.com
Evolve or die
Popcorn Flow
Thinking and A3 in Action
@agilesensei

Today I’m going to
change the world
… (a little).

“A few years ago, I made a world of
difference to one client”

“Except… I didn’t.”
28 months later...

“I saw good people
swallowed by an enemy
they could not defeat”

“innovation and growth being crushed by
status-quo, fire-fighting and conformity.”

“the company went through many
reorganizations, only to stay the same”
Organization chart
Blame flow
Victims
Rule makers
Controllers
Enforcers
God
Losers

organizations can’t be “agile” if only the
development teams are doing Agile
Typical “Agile” Enterprise
SMs

“all was left was a desolate, lifeless place,
with seemingly little to offer humans.”

But What if
an “alien” technology
could change it?

LEAN
MANAGEMENT
1
@agilesensei

“ All we are doing is looking at the
timeline from the moment the
customer gives us an order to the
point we can collect the cash.
And we are reducing that timeline by
removing the non-value-added
wastes.
-‐-‐-‐
Taiichi
Ohno,
Founder
of
TPS

“but that’s only part of the story…”

Why do you allow
your competitors to
copy all your tools?

What they need to see…
is not visible
What the
hell is He
talking
about?

W. Edwards deming believed that…
“ 95% of variation in worker’s
performance is governed by the
systems.
---W. Edwards Deming

Perhaps…
“ We should work on our processes, not
the outcome of our processes.
---W. Edwards Deming

in lean, we co-design and continuously
improve processes and tools…
…TO BETTER SERVE
INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS.

“learning to see” involves bringing to the
surface what we learn
Value Stream (from concept to cash)
Learning
Stream(s)
(from
question
to
knowledge
base)

With method and guidance, managers grow
to become problem solvers, critical
thinkers and mentors

(YOU MAY ALSO CONSIDER THAT…)
“ Management is too important
to leave to the managers.
Management is everyone’s job.
-‐-‐-‐
Jurgen
Appelo

I had terrible experiences with problem
solving meetings

in Lean, a "problem" is the gap between the
"current situation" and the "standard/
expectation"
Gap = Problem
Standard
Current Situation

Following that definition, there
are 3 classes of problems:
Kaizen
Standard
(or Shared Expectation)
Preventive
Maintenance

A3 Thinkers are like investigators at a crime scene…

They capture a shared understanding of a problem
- often with just pencil and paper.
Why are we
talking about it?
Where do things
stand today?
What should be
happening?
What would be a step in
the right direction?
What causes prevent us
from reaching our
target condition?

To find causes, they use simple analysis tools Such
as fishbone diagrams…

Problem: got a
Speeding ticket
Late for work
Got up late
Alarm clock
didn’t work
Batteries
were flat
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Therefore
Therefore
Therefore
Therefore
… And 5-whys

Once the nature of the problem is clear, they take
steps to move towards the target condition
systematically.
What countermeasures
should neutralize the
causes?
What steps are required
to implement the selected
countermeasures? How will you know if the
countermeasures work?
Based on the results,
what’s next?

filling a report as quickly as possible would bring
you fast nowhere.

A3 is about the thinking, not the report.
“ -- Claudio Perrone
It’s not what you do but rather what
you learn by doing it that matters.

I learned to develop each section thoroughly…

… and validate my current understanding with others
before moving to the next SECTION

Traditionally, a mentor would challenge
a problem solver’s line of thought with
quick coaching cycles
What do you mean by it? (Clarity)
Is it always the case? (Assumptions)
How do you know? (Evidence)
What are you implying
by that? (Implications)
Would that necessarily
happen? (consequences)
Do anyone see it
another way? (Alternative
Point of views)

A3 thinking is not about problem solving…
… it’s about creating problem solvers.

I saw situations like this…
Why did the site
go down?
Ehm… someone made a mistake.
WHO?
I want his f$g#
Head!!

… Turning into this
Hi all,
Here’s a quick summary of the
root cause analysis we did this morning.
Problem: The Website was offline from 15:31 to 15:40 because:
-Website couldn't establish a connection to the database.
- Because MySql service crashed.
- Because MySql storage engine reached the default configuration memory limit.
- Because Apache web server configuration allows threads to request more
physical memory than available to MySql.
- Because Apache and MySql default configuration settings are not
optimised for the RAM currently available on the new virtual server.
We failed to detect it because:
- New relic didn't notify us that the site was not responsive
- We don't know yet, needs further investigation. It might not be configured properly
(cont..)

…
We took adaptive actions and the site is now up an running.
However these are the further actions to take:
Preventive: (future/cause)
[now] Expand RAM on new virtual server
[now] Review Apache & MySql configuration
[later] Investigate moving to nginx
Contingent (future/effect):
[now] Configure New Relic's monitoring properly (alerts on site down, response time, n of
processes, memory)
[later] Investigate using New Relic for app profiling

Without guidance It’s all too easy to develop
shallow A3 reports.
… and Good
mentors are
rarer than
plutonium.

So, with the motto:
“Toyota supplier in 2 years or less”…

… I released a family of thinking tools…
www.a3thinker.com

to help you change the world.
one problem at a time.
www.a3thinker.com/deck

Arguably, an A3 report “surfaces” a learning stream
around a problem

What other
Learning streams
can we seek to
surface?

POPCORN
FLOW
3
@agilesensei

A while ago, I worked with a team who
had not deployed in months

We worked together and evolved using
the kanban method

But the real “secret” was our ability to
SYSTEMATICALLY DEFINE AND negotiate
explicit change experiments…

… a powerful learning stream that I defined
and captured on a parallel “Popcorn board”
Problems & observations
Options
Possible experiments
Committed
Ongoing
Review
Next

It starts with Problems & Observations...

...which I use to elicit options.

Promising options lead to a backlog of
possible experiments.

experiments that we Commit to pursue have
an action, reason, expectation and Review
date.

At Each retrospective, I ask exactly these
questions:

Some people fear “failure”…
Gap = Frustration
Expectation
Reality

…but we only really “fail” when we limit
our opportunities to learn
Gap = Frustration
Expectation
Reality
Learning

It’s Not “fail fast, fail often”...
… It’s “Learn fast, learn often”.

Right from the beginning, I knew this was
different.

... Because the team COULD easily handle 5-10
change experiments each week, rapidly enabling it
to DELIVER multiple times a day

…and then it spread.
Popcorn boards started to appear to other
parts of the organization.

Imagine a continous flow of experiments to
dramatically accelerate the rate of change
in every corner of your organization...
... How far would you go?

“ -- Winston Churchill
To improve is to change.
To be perfect is to change often.

Claudio
Perrone
Next is Now
claudio@agilesensei.com
www.agilesensei.com
@agilesensei
www.a3thinker.com

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