An experiment in using a visual timeline to develop Improvement Kata thinking and track progress towards a target condition

1. USING A VISUAL TIMELINE
TO HELP DEVELOP
IMPROVEMENT KATA THINKING
An experiment in visually recording
progress toward a breakthrough challenge
By Bret Bakensztos
June 2013

2. Visualizing the "Grey Zone"
From “Introduction to the Improvement Kata” – SlideShare by Mike Rother
We're experimenting with a visual to help our team maintain
focus on those obstacles immediately between us and the next
Target Condition versus perceived ones far off in the future.
We started with the thinking represented in this diagram:
CHALLENGE
TARGETCONDITION
CURRENTSTATE
TIME
1stOBSTACLE
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Far in the Future

3. What our Timeline Looks Like
TARGET
CONDITION
OBSTACLE
3
This area
is where
we KNOW
what to
expect.
This area is where we are
LEARNING – figuring out
what is just outside the
current knowledge
threshold to reach a Target
Condition
This area is so far outside our
current knowledge threshold
we can’t concern ourselves
with the obstacle which
“might” appear. This is where
we are SPECULATING.
The overall project timeline covers from our start date up to July 22nd. The hypothesis we
want to test is that the assembly of our product can be broken down into 7 x 1.5hr units
of work (equal in duration, but not content). There is an opportunity to experiment on
July 22nd, but there are a great number of unknowns between now and that date.
NEXT TARGET
CONDITION
OBSTACLE

4. What We’ve Observed So Far
• Some of the members of our team actually took comfort in
being able to focus the Learning area instead of Speculating.
• It was tough for some to accept exactly how much we don’t
know yet! They want to fill that unknown area between
where we are and the challenge with certainty by creating
“to do’s.”
• Using the timeline, the team is able see when their thinking
is not in the right “zone”
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5. Neat Team Spirit
Whenever we have a tendency to want to fill that unknown
with certainty by creating “to do’s,” the team quickly asks,
“Does working on that possible future problem help us get
to our next Target Condition?"
If the response is, “No…but we will have to deal with it
eventually,” then the team says “Then we will deal with it
when it becomes an obstacle to our target condition.”
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