Designing a Kanban System involves the evolution and discovery of a good design. It cannot be pre-determined in advance. Thus instead of defining a future state and working towards it, we start with the current state and work away from it, exploring and assessing different alternatives. Each output of a design iteration will create different outcomes, and those that improve the system can be said to have a positive impact, while those that worsen the system have a negative impact.
Impact, therefore, describes the disposition of the system, or its tendency to behave in a certain way. Rather than defining a planned destination, impact points to the desired direction, such that we can check whether any changes are moving us towards or away from the direction we want to be heading. Impact can be assessed by using narrative techniques to capture stories about utopian (and dystopian) futures, and subsequently asking whether an outcome is likely to lead to more of the positive stories and fewer of the negative stories.
When imagining what impacts would be desirable, it’s easy for our experiences and biases to lead us to narrow our thinking and prematurely converge on only one particular type of impact. To avoid this, and encourage diversity in exploring a wide variety of potential impacts, Kanban Thinking describes three types to consider, giving different perspectives.
- Flow. This is Doing the Thing Right. Stories will be primarily related to the process, efficiency and reliability.
- Value. This is Doing the Right Thing. Stories will be primarily related to the product, effectiveness and validity.
- Potential. This is Doing the Thing Sustainably. Stories will be primarily related to people, euphoria and flexibility.
Triads are a concept used by Dave Snowden and Cognitive Edge’s Sensemaker Suite, where a triangle is used as a measuring instrument to assess against three parameters. By using triads, impacts can be placed relative to where they have the strongest affinity, without having to decide on anyone in particular. Imagine an impact being connected to each vertex with a piece of elastic. The greater the affinity to a vertex, the greater the tension, with the final position being a result of the combination of all three. Thus the story in the triad below has the strongest affinity with the Flow vertex. The next strongest is Potential, with Value being the weakest.
| Flow | Value | Potential |
|---|---|---|
| Thing Right | Right Thing | Thing Sustainable |
| Process | Product | People |
| Reliability | Validity | Flexibility |
| Effectiveness | Efficiency | Euphoria |
Generating lots of utopian (and dystopian) future stories, instrumented with these triads, will generate patterns which can give a sense of where the improvement opportunities are for making an impact.