We'd like to
share a simple exercise that helps people understand how hard it is to be
productive when they get too busy. You can do this on your own (it only
takes 5 minutes) or you can try it with an audience.
We call it the "GET IT ALL
DONE NOW" Game :-)
THE "GET IT ALL DONE NOW"
GAME
The game works particularly
well with larger audiences (any size theoretically).
Before you start: Make sure you
have 15 minutes set aside for the whole exercise and make sure your audience is
armed with a pen and a piece of paper each.
STEP 1) THE SETUP
As the
facilitator you'll need a white board or flip-chart to write up the results.
Prepare something like this:
Display a
presentation slide (or poster) with the following three lines:
Here's the back
story to set the scene for your audience:
"...You're each employed
by our company and you are here to serve these three customers as quickly as
possible. Your job will be to write down these three lines on your own
piece of paper but there's a catch..."
STEP 2) THE 1ST SCENARIO
"The catch is...
a) We have a
strict company policy that no customer should be left waiting so
you will need to deliver all three sentences at once and
b) We
like to measure how fast this happens so please put your hand up when
you have completed the task
..."
Setup a stopwatch that
has a lap timer feature (smart phone apps tend to work well).
Check for any questions and
then launch the exercise!
Take a 'lap' time every time
someone raises their hand until everyone is done then stop the clock.
Jot down the results... a)
Earliest finish time... b) latest finish time... c) approximate
average time....
Move on to STEP 3
(NOTE: YOUR
AUDIENCE SHOULD COPY THE LINES IN THE PATTERN BELOW)
Note: The pattern should look something like
this... all three customer jobs simultaneous
STEP 3) THE 2ND SCENARIO
"...Well done everyone...
OK, our company has been learning about LEAN thinking and we've
decided to fire the previous manager and establish a new customer policy...
We're going to rerun the exercise only this time you're only allowed to
work on one customer at a time..."
Check for any questions and
then launch the second exercise!
Take a 'lap' time every time
someone raises their hand until everyone is done then stop the clock.
Jot down the results... a)
Earliest finish time... b) latest finish time... c) approximate
average time....
Move on to STEP 4
(NOTE: THE
PATTERN SHOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS)
Note: the pattern should look something like this
STEP 4: THE LEARNINGS
Try to get your audience to
share their experiences... Some questions to get things started might be:
· How did the first run feel?
chaotic... difficult...
· How did the second run feel in
comparison? easier... more flow... smoother
· Which approach gave the fastest
overall response?
· Which approach gave the fastest
time to first value?
· Which approach felt more
productive and less wasteful?
By the end of the
exercise you should have something like this:
Some of the key
insights to conclude with:
· Limiting Work-In-Progress
increases throughput
· Focusing on one thing at a time
is faster, better and cheaper... every time
· Teams that are able to focus on
less tend to deliver better quality, faster and are more able to sustain their
pace (i.e. achieve their flow state).
So why doesn't everyone
understand and use these principles more widely you might ask? Well there
is a traditional management view (that's still very prevalent) that compels
managers to make sure that every employee is utilized to the maximum.... in
other words, it's important that everyone is kept busy... all the time...
This approach directly undermines productive throughput and prevents
teams from finding their true potential.
JOIN THE REVOLUTION... STOP THE
GLORIFICATION OF 'BUSY'!
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P.s. We hope you
found this article useful and if you do use this exercise please let us know
how it went :-)
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