Growing up Vietnamese-American, I was taught to honor and respect people, never to waste anything and to always think beyond myself. I was also taught to hide conflict and to ignore problems, especially if had to do with someone senior to me.
J'ai rapidement appris que l'honneur et le respect ne peuvent durer sans que les conflits soient mis à jour et que les problèmes soient résolus de manière proactive. Chez Planview AgilePlace, notre culture commence par les gens. Les personnalités diverses et excentriques de notre entreprise sont autorisées à briller - elles font de nous ce que nous sommes.
But our traditions go deeper than bacon, Doctor Who, and Nerf guns. They’re rooted in an intrinsic hunger and drive to work together to improve the way the world works. We know that respect for people is one of the most effective Lean improvement methods, which enables us to maintain our agility, and adapt to change quickly and sustainably.
All this is not without conflict. We have a diverse team with diverse skills and personalities, which makes conflict (defined as a difference in opinion or approach) inevitable. We know that when diversity is not treated with respect, this healthy, natural conflict can escalate to become unhealthy, and turn into distrust, frustration, or resentment.
Comment les méthodes d'amélioration Lean permettent le respect
Nos valeurs fondamentales (le respect des personnes, l'amélioration continue et l'accent mis sur la création de valeur pour le client) nous ont aidés à instaurer une culture de compréhension et de responsabilité qui transcende les origines, les personnalités, les flux de travail et les systèmes de croyance.
These values are strengthened through Lean principles, which are applied across the organization, from the way we hire to the way we interact with each other on a daily basis. I’ll explain each of those Lean improvement methods and principles, as well as give practical tips for how to incorporate them into your organization to create a rich, diverse, respectful Lean culture.
Optimiser l'ensemble
Culture is our heartbeat here at Planview AgilePlace. Everyone who joins Planview AgilePlace goes through our Lean Bootcamp: an intensive training dedicated to learning Lean principles, practice activities that demonstrate Lean tools and product training.
Our learning does not stop there. We continue to train and have refreshers as we join our teams. We have Lunch and Learns, covering everything from blogging to public speaking, so we can empower every Planview AgilePlaceter to use their diverse knowledge and expertise to benefit others. We empower everyone to have an equal voice and a channel to celebrate their diversity.
We are all Lean practitioners and teachers, working to practice Lean improvement methods in every activity we do. We are constantly exercising and strengthening our Lean muscles, not only to punch bears, but to face our fears and overcome it to all follow a common purpose.
Faites la marche Gemba Walk
Gemba means to “go and see.” Walking the gemba is never more critical than when we face incidents or outages with our software. Our cross-departmental incident response team works together to make sure customers, employees and other stakeholders are all up-to-date and informed.
Our CEO, CIO, CTO are in the trenches with the product development, marketing and sales teams, sometimes burning midnight oil. As we improve the incident response process, we document it in a place everyone can access. We hold regular trainings to keep all teams informed of proper protocol. We do the gemba walk to physically go to the heart of the problem, make it transparent and fix it together.
The same goes for people. When conflict arises out of our diversity, we come together to listen and support. When we have team issues, we all get together in a room and whiteboard our concerns and action items to resolve them.
Walking the gemba is to walk in someone’s shoes. We do this through being in the same place, face to face. How do we do this when we have employees all over the world? We have virtual conferences, we fly people in for our planning meetings. Twice a year, we get everyone together for an entire week of planning, bonding, and learning. We work hard to provide an environment where everyone can participate, no matter the distance.
Kaizen
Our culture of Kaizen (continuous improvement) allows us to fail fast, so we can learn faster. Planview AgilePlace has an environment where we can reflect on our mistakes and work on mistake proofing our process. We invest heavily in training to teach the skills and knowledge teams need to succeed.
Kaizen is everyone’s responsibility. Team leads often identify their own learning gaps, and develop team training for our bi-weekly team training sessions. I work with team leads and subject matter experts to cross-train teams in technologies like Rabbit MQ and Docker. We have an open library and subscriptions to training sites for self-learning. We have an all hands (whole) company training on a regular cadence, so we can constantly reflect, learn, and get better.
We have to have slack time to practice Kaizen, which is why slack time is an integral part of our workflow. Slack gives us time to reflect, practice, and improve our work. It’s everyone’s responsibility to create an environment where slack time is encouraged and respected.
Nous devons également profiter nous-mêmes des temps morts, afin d'apprendre, de grandir et de devenir de plus en plus précieux pour nos équipes. Une organisation saine investit du temps pour que chacun puisse apprendre.
Kanban
We fear what we don’t see, and we make assumptions about things we don’t know. Kanban is the tool we use to visualize our work, and it can also help visualize defects and misunderstandings. By using process policies, everyone can decide on guidelines and boundaries together.
Planview AgilePlace (the software) allows you to make those policies transparent to everyone, so there are no misunderstandings — and if the policies aren’t clear enough, they can be edited. The more we see, the more we understand and the better we can work together.
Nos équipes ont des walkabouts Lean et des cafés Lean, qui encouragent les conversations ouvertes et permettent à chacun de s'exprimer. Habituellement, nous dessinons un tableau Kanban de base "À faire, à faire, à faire" sur un tableau blanc, où chacun soumet des notes autocollantes avec des idées d'amélioration. Une fois que tout le monde a soumis ses idées, les participants votent sur les sujets à discuter. Cela permet à chacun d'avoir une voix égale et d'être entendu. Les conversations de type forum ouvert comme celui-ci permettent à des personnes d'horizons différents de partager leur expertise, leur point de vue et leurs préoccupations. Le simple fait de parler, sans jugement, est l'une des méthodes d'amélioration Lean les plus efficaces dont nous disposons, et n'importe qui - même une personne ayant peu d'expérience Lean - peut y participer.
Plus forts ensemble
Mes parents m'ont toujours dit que tout le monde peut casser une baguette, mais que si j'avais un paquet de baguettes, il serait presque impossible de les plier. Une organisation n'a de succès que si ses membres sont unis dans un même but. Ici, à Planview AgilePlace, nous avons tous le même objectif : rendre le travail meilleur pour tout le monde dans ce monde. Essayez d'incorporer certaines de ces méthodes d'amélioration Lean dans la culture de votre équipe ou de votre organisation, et observez l'amélioration de la collaboration, de la qualité et de la communication.
