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A podcast for people who care about systems thinking, agile, leadership, and management.
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Thursday Dec 28, 2023
Thursday Dec 28, 2023
There is more to managing large teams in organizations than limiting work in progress.
In this episode, we delve into the complexities and nuances of handling larger teams effectively and explore:
- the importance of robust feedback mechanisms and fostering trust and collaboration among team members.
- strategies for short lived, goal-oriented, self-organizing teams and how those can enhance efficiency and focus.
- the role of social dynamics in team management
(Sorry about the sound quality, we had some tech issues)
2 months ago
Enjoyed your conversation with Viktor Cessan — lots of practical reflections. My takeaways: The idea of not being afraid of large teams aligns well with Kanban’s start with where you are principle: if the current reality is a larger team, the focus is on understanding flow and constraints before reshaping structure. In practice, I’ve seen larger teams benefit from keeping daily Kanban tightly focused on flow, blockers, and impediments, which helps keep the discussion effective even within a short timebox. On dependencies, larger teams don’t necessarily remove them. When dependencies remain inter-team, resolution tends to be slower and less frequent, often amplifying their impact on flow. That sustained “felt pain” can be useful in prompting deeper conversations about system design, skills, and flow before scaling decisions are made. On WIP and feedback, I’ve always seen WIP limits in Kanban as living constraints that evolve through feedback rather than static rules — the feedback loop feels embedded in how WIP is used and adjusted over time. Overall, a thoughtful discussion that reinforces learning and sense-making over applying fixed structures.