In our ongoing series on moving from busy to flowing, we've examined how organizational flow can be disrupted by multitasking, dependency friction, and misaligned value streams. But even when the technical aspects of delivery are optimized, there's a more human constraint that can bring everything to a halt: a loss of trust. When stakeholders no longer believe in the system—in the data, in the process, in the teams—flow collapses. Meetings multiply, approvals proliferate, and delivery gri...| Innolution
Discover how to create a culture that sustains flow efficiency. Learn why leadership mindset, trust, and system design matter more than tools in achieving true business agility.| innolution.com
For many years I’ve specialized in helping organizations improve how work flows across teams, departments, and systems to deliver meaningful results. One of the most commonly used tools in that effort is value stream mapping (VSM)—a powerful technique from Lean that helps teams visualize and analyze how value is delivered. Value stream mapping is a catchy and often unfamiliar term in many organizations. In these environments, the phrase carries no historical baggage. Its Lean manufacturin...| Innolution
You can’t improve what you can’t see. This is the fourth article in our series, From Busy to Flowing, which explores how to unlock sustainable agility by improving how work flows through your organization—not just how busy your teams are. So far, we’ve: Reframed the productivity conversation by showing why flow beats busy Introduced core flow metrics to help you measure and improve how work moves through your system Diagnosed the organizational drag of dependency friction, which creat...| Innolution
This article is the third in the From Busy to Flow series, which explores what it takes to unlock sustainable agility by improving the flow of work. In the previous article, we examined key metrics for measuring flow across an organization. This post builds on that foundation by focusing on one of the most critical and often hidden dimensions of flow, what I am calling, Dependency Friction. By understanding how dependencies impede flow—and learning how to quantify that friction—organizati...| Innolution
Flow metrics help you make data-informed decisions that lead to faster, smoother, and more predictable delivery.| innolution.com
This is the first article in our 10-week series: From Busy to Flowing – Unlocking Sustainable Agility. In last week’s kickoff, Why Flow Efficiency Matters More Than Ever in an Era of Cost Cutting, we explored why focusing on flow is essential in today’s cost-conscious environment. Now, we begin the series in earnest by challenging one of the most deeply ingrained (and damaging) assumptions in modern work: the belief that keeping people busy drives productivity. In reality, it may be the...| Innolution
This article serves as the kickoff to our upcoming 10-week series: From Busy to Flowing – Unlocking Sustainable Agility. In the weeks ahead, we’ll dive deep into the practical strategies and system-level thinking organizations can use to improve flow efficiency—moving from overloaded, reactive teams to streamlined, value-driven delivery. Before we begin the series, this preview sets the stage by exploring why flow efficiency matters so much right now—and how it offers a more sustainab...| Innolution
In every Scrum class I get asked how to deal with interrupt-driven work. Scrum is very effective when dealing with planned work, but what about unplanned work that appears during a sprint? Can we use Scrum to deal with both plan-driven and interrupt-driven work? Yes, if there is statistical predictability to the must-do-now interrupt-driven flow stream. Let’s dissect what that means and how to apply it. Flow Streams Imagine there are two streams of work, each with different flow characteris...| Innolution
Most organizations that employ agile ways of working, like Scrum, focus on self-organizing teams. In these organizations, operational decisions are delegated to teams, whose members have the most detailed knowledge of the consequences and practicalities associated with those decisions. Self-organization is a bottom-up, emergent property of a team, so there is no external dominating force applying top-down command and control. In other words, management cannot just say to a team, “go forth a...| Innolution