Queues and threads of your organization and work in progress limits
This post has been imported from my previous blog. I did my best to parse XML properly, but it might have some errors.
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This will be a tale of two organizations.
The first organization
was made by people leaving in asynchrony. They used emails to communicate what they wanted, they registered their needs and orders in some systems. The same people read emails from others, queried the systems and fulfilled orders. They work was oriented around consuming what they get in different queues like mentioned email boxes or ticket tracking systems. Meetings engaging bigger groups were exceptional, as they inferred with queue-orientation.
The second organization
was made by people leaving in synchrony. They used phones to communicate with others, they went through their buildings corridors to meet another person and ask whether he/she can do sth for them. Meetings were important as well. They work was oriented around synchronous engaging groups of people.
Your organization
is a mixture of this two for sure. If the first kind of organization prevails, people can easily reduce the work in progress which is one of the Kanban topics. Reduced work in progress easily increases performance by reducing the number of context switches one has to make. Additionally, queues like issues/tickets can be easily monitored and shared if needed. You may have problems with emails, but one can for instance FF them to another team member. If the second kind of organization triumphs the work turns into running/talking/meeting. Sending an email engages one person, call or talking to someone - two, a meeting - even more which leads toward short period of time spend on real work with no interruptions. What kind of organization is your company? How do you act and how would you like to act?
Comments
I think emails are still bad in takin up resources (that is generate context switches). But how to reduce them? Prioritize or redirect to task-folders? Maybe...
by Chaos at 2014-06-16 13:15:23 +0000
Still better, to get an email than a phone call. The best: to get an email with a linkable resource which can be passed on, without forwarding the whole body :)
by scooletz at 2014-06-16 21:34:23 +0000
