PK Power Up 2: Learning from Completion

Your done column isn't powerful unless it is actually used. Right now, "Done" for most people is an end-state. No learning, no reflection, no improvement.

Done DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE FINISHED!

You need to learn from things that went well, things that went okay(ish), and things that were horrible.

There are different mechanisms to utilize for your DONE “column”. There are many ways to trigger learning, this video provides four of them.

As always, check out Modus Institute for the deep dives on visualizing and triggering learning.

For Context, Clarity, & Continuous Improvement, Get Rid of That To-Do List

Make list.Become overwhelmed.Cross off low-hanging fruit.Feel good (momentarily).Tackle next easiest task.Repeat.Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But why simply optimize for productivity, when you can shoot for effectiveness?Those seemingly interminable, anxiety-inducing to-do lists - we've all been beholden to them. But if context, clarity, and continuous improvement are what you're looking for, there just might be a better option.For something with such a staggering amount of information, to-do lists fail miserably at providing the context necessary to effectively prioritize our work, understand and communicate our capacity, or surface issues so we can address them in real-time, preventing them from recurring.Rather than create a static, task-focused, prescriptive inventory of your to-dos - inviting little more than an opportunity to react - visualizing your work on a flexible, flow-focused Personal Kanban transforms those to-dos into a narrative of your work that promotes cognitive ease and invites informed action. Tasks are situated in context, options and priorities become obvious, and emergent patterns (like recurring bottlenecks) give us the necessary feedback to invite discussion, collaboration, and/or improvement.

Design: The Status Column

The Problem: Sometimes we are waiting to hear the status of something. That status could come at any time and from any type of communication (email, phone, mention in the hallway, etc.). But we are waiting. If we wait too long, not knowing will cause us problems - but waiting isn't a task. We lose track of time and suddenly we are under the gun.The Solution: Build the Personal Kanban to specifically track status items and let us know when they require action.The Narrative: We've all been there. That day when someone says to us, "How's that thing going?" and we realize "Oh crap! I don't know!" Then we have to scramble to find out.Someone else or some group of "someone elses" are responsible to getting something done, but it directly impacts us. We can't call them every day and say, "Are you done yet?" because that's micromanaging. But we do need to have an idea of where they are at.At Modus, we've found specifically calling out items we are waiting for status on (things outside our group and therefore not on our Personal Kanban) allows us to treat them as potential tasks. If someone reports in on time, it simply moves to DONE and never required us to act. If it sits too long, then it becomes a task.