TBM 14b/52: Discontinuous Improvement
I use the phrase “continuous improvement” daily.
The idea resonates with me on a deep level.
But I’ve come to the conclusion that improvement is rarely continuous over an extended period of time. Our attempts may be continuous, but the actual improvement is not. In fact, things often get worse—or need to get worse—before they get better.
Consider advice as straightforward as “visualize the work”. Makes sense. But it turns out that visualizing work is more difficult than you might expect. It’s painful to look in the mirror. It’s stressful to see the mess that you’re in. It takes time to capture/describe work, and there are only so many hours in the day. Some teams can’t even agree on what work is! Do you include ideas? What about after efforts ship? Do you break it down?
Improvement has boundaries. “Continuous improvement” works on a local level until it hits a local maximum. Getting five managers to agree on something is going to be WAY harder. A re-org? Re-teaming? Budget for a concerted effort to reduce debt? Way, way harder.
“We used to just work it out. And now we have to work it out in public. What gives?”
“Oh here we go. Another process thing!”
Consider a non-work example. Have you ever renovated a house? Some house renovations can proceed with minimal disruption. Other renovations need scaffolding, temporary supports, and ripped up floors. The analogy of scaffolding is helpful because the goal isn’t to KEEP the scaffolding in place. Rather it is something meant to hold the place up while we pivot to something that better aligns with our goals. We remove the scaffolding like we remove extra/temporary process, artifacts, and rituals.
But there’s going to be a period of time with annoying scaffolding in place.
I mention all this because I’ve observed many well-meaning change agents (myself included) latch on to “continuous improvement”. We get our hopes up, and don’t brace ourselves for the long haul. We forget that we’ll need some scaffolding in place to hold the roof up while things shift around. It will get worse, and harder, before it gets better. You need to be prepared, and shift your perspective.
Sustainably keep trying, but don’t expect continuous improvement.
Love the scaffolding metaphor (and probably overuse it)
I think it’s important to be intentional about whether the scaffolding will be permanent, ephemeral or adaptable over time.
With scaffolding to support the building work like you mention, it’s vital that you have a plan to take it down again before you put it up. And worth remembering that the building work always takes way longer than estimated, and the scaffolding stays around even longer.
I'm trying to slow things down on purpose, or a least not doing everything that is requested of me as a consultant ("we have to implement all the dozens of rituals of this scaling framework and launch 10 new teams applying those practices in the next quarter"): it might get me kicked out from some discussion tables and opportunities, but I do believe in the concept of discontinuous improvement — that the idea of "forced improvement" that is often implicitly sold through agile consulting is just magical thinking ("we are agile therefore we improve").