Lean from the Trenches

Process Improvement Workshops

The process improvement workshop is basically a scrum of scrums type of retrospective, with one person from each team and each specialty (the same “cross-team” that meets at the project board at 10 a.m. every day). This is the most effective place to trigger larger changes, such as those that affect multiple teams, and to follow up on the result of previous changes.

The stated purpose of this meeting is to clarify and improve our way of working. One of my most important tasks as coach was to set up and facilitate these process improvement workshops until they became part of the culture.

Initially we did these every Thursday at 1 p.m. Having it on Thursdays at 1 p.m. was mostly a coincidence—that was the least ...