The way of #Kanban coaching; be respectful, offer an alternative first instead of eliminating the current, help to see/create choices, be an opposition instead of a resistance, think in both-and not just either-or mindset.

Lets dig deeper, shall we.

Your clients have been doing what they’ve been doing for a long time and their business is still standing. So, they must be doing something right; their business is still competitive. They’ve their own practices and they can pretty well come up with new ones on their own. #Respect

Your first job is to understand who they are, what they want and what they expect to see; #needs/#outcomes. You’re not there to revolutionize their way of being; eliminate the current system. Remember the French Revolution? (Or any kind of revolution for that matter.) We’re not on war with each other. Hat tip to Agendashift. #wholehearted

Do whatever is necessary to observe, explore, discover needs in the system. #STATIK; System Thinking Approach to Introducing #Kanban might be one of these tools to use. Agendashift might be an other. These tools can be strengthened by #CleanLanguage and #LiberatingStructures.

After this understanding you may recommend #alternatives to their current practices. Your clients need #options to choose, use them side by side with current tools, and compare which is better. If you can’t show before and after, how would you prove that they’ve transformed for better?

If clients see the improvement, they will decide to own the new on their own. This is #evolution not #revolution. We’re not forming a #resistance but an #opposition; an alternative to the current. Systems respond well to a familiar instead of something completely new. #Leadership

As long as you, #Kanban Coach, foster this kind of open minded, embracing and experimenting thinking at your clients, a better way of doing things will be found continuously; #Kaizen. Embrace both-and. Don’t be stuck thinking you have one choice; either-or. Hat tip to Patrick Steyaert.

I’m very lucky to have the privilege to work with colleagues who have this kind of mindset and to have leaders who I’ve interacted with through internet/books/classes guided me with their knowledge in this manner. But this all started with David J. Anderson; thank you for everything. #origin