A visual management system is a low-tech tool with a simple mission—to visually represent the work that the team is doing. When used regularly and correctly, it can be a project acceleration tool. However, teams often go wild with visuals, decorating every inch of free wall space with gridlines, Sticky Notes, and project stats until it looks like the arts and crafts store vomited all over the office. Nichole Vanderlaan refers to this as “wallpaper,” which is often static and fails to provide much benefit. She highlights common failure modes that result in wallpaper such as not huddling regularly, absence of shared team goals, and over complicated systems. The primary benefit of a visual management system is its impact on team behaviors such as team accountability over individual contributions, problem identification, and continuous improvement. Stop going wild with wallpaper and learn how to create a visual management system that drives team accountability and urgency.

1. AT5
Agile Techniques
6/8/2017 11:30:00 AM
AT5 Visual Management Gone Wild
Presented by:
Nichole Vanderlaan
Amway Corporation
Brought to you by:
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2. Nichole Vanderlaan
Amway Corporation
Nichole Vanderlaan is an agile program manager whose management and
military experiences have led her to play an instrumental role in an agile
transformation. Her work varies from removing daily impediments to partnering
with executives on improving planning and delivery. Nichole's efforts as the
champion of agile have created visibility and interest in agile across the company
within IT, supply chain, finance, product development, marketing, and sales.
When not on the water with her family or on a golf course, Nichole can often be
found teaching agile via lunch and learns, book clubs, mentoring, and looking for
broader opportunities to share her passion for agility.

3. 1
Enabling Emotionally Committed Teams to Deliver Value Faster!
Visual Management Gone Wild!

4. 2
Objectives
✓ Understand Visual Management Systems and their purpose
✓ Understand the pitfalls and how to avoid them
✓ How visual management can help solve common problems
✓ How to make the behaviors stick

5. 3
‘“What people think I do” - project manager’ - Pinterest

6. 4
REQUIREMENTS
CHURN
ONE-SIZE-
FITS-ALL
CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENT
DECISION
MAKING
MEETINGS
ACCOUNTABILITY

7. 5

8. 6
The Elephant in the Room
“Lead with Humility & Show Respect for Every Individual” – Dr. Shigeo Shingo
“Lessons from the Blind men and the elephant” Balaji Viswanathan

9. 7
Visual Management Systems

10. 8
Key Benefits

11. 9
Key Benefits of Visual Management
▪Enables Communication & Collaboration
▪Drives Accountability
▪Identifies Problems Immediately
▪Creates a Sense of Urgency
▪Alignment & Clarity on Critical Tasksn critical tasks

12. 10
See
KnowAct
✓Make problems visible
✓Communicate status
✓Break down silos
✓Improve productivity
✓Improve confidence
How Visual Management Achieves the Benefits

13. 11
Other Problems Common to Solve
▪Task Switching
▪Partial Engagement
▪Long Meetings
▪Poor Attendance
▪Low Energy
▪Low Commitment to Project
▪Siloed Focus
▪Not Outcome Focused
▪Agenda Owned by Program Manager
▪Micromanagement
▪Poor Visibility to Workload
▪Overburdened Team Members
▪Difficult to Transfer Knowledge
▪Skill Development
▪Lack of Prioritization
▪Not Meeting Deadlines

14. 12
Visual Management

15. 13
How to Get Started
▪Identify what problems we are really trying to solve
▪Define who the audience and main users are & engage them
▪Get the right tools
▪Design Your System as a Team
▪Team Huddles regularly
▪Experiment DON’T try
▪Reflect

16. 14
Model Line

17. 15

18. 16
Visuals are not Enough-Daily Huddles
▪Not a Status or Recording Meeting
▪Not for Micromanagement
▪Not only for the Scrum Master
▪Not a Planning Meeting
▪Not a Technical Discussion
▪Not be Held far from the Work Location
▪Must Include THE THREE QUESTIONS!
The 3 Q’s
1.What did you accomplish yesterday?
2.What do you plan to accomplish today?
3.Are there any impediments in your way?

19. 17
Avoiding the wallpaper

20. 18
Promote Go See’s

21. 19
Common Failure Modes
▪ Overuse of Technology
▪ Cross-Site Teams
▪ System too Complicated
▪ Not Having the Correct Units of Work
▪ Not Owning Your Own Tasks
▪ Not Pointing to the Board When Talking
▪ Not Starting and Ending Huddles on Time

22. 20
Behaviors to be on the Look Out For
• Too Much VMS Too Fast
• Task Master
• People Tuning Out
• People Showing Up to be Told What to Do
• Cant See Work Completed
• Cant See Waste

23. 21
How to Make the Behaviors Stick

24. 22
we used when we created
them.”
Albert Einstein
with the same thinking,
“We cannot solve our
problems

25. 23
Sustainable
Change
SYSTEM
TOOLS
THINKING

26. 24
Thank you to all of my mentors
Sandi Keller
Jeffery Howey
Matthew Heusser
Matt Albin
Kaylee Betzinger
Jerry Cunningham
Mark McClusky
Aubrey Pancy
Kris Zoerman
Edward Blackman
Steve Sweers
Menlo Innovation
Target corporation
LeadingAgile
Nationwide Insurance