Creating Capacity with Kanban

by Kyle Chandler
March 22, 2021March 22, 2021

A growing company usually means adding more people to the team to handle the additional workload. But adding personnel also adds costs: recruiting, onboarding, training, extra workspace & equipment, never mind salary and benefits. Hiring the wrong people escalates the costs and slashes ROI – think dismissal, turnover, and going through the whole recruitment, onboarding, and training process again. While hiring new people is sometimes inevitable to keep pace with… Read More »Creating Capacity with Kanban

Learning to Say Yes to Saying No

by Kyle Chandler
March 4, 2021March 17, 2021

Nearly all leaders have a hard time learning when to say no. With so many people in an organization making demands for their projects to take priority, it’s easy to be pressured into saying “yes” prematurely – or worse, hedging and saying “maybe” to avoid conflict. But learning that it’s ok to objectively prioritize can prevent unnecessary interdepartmental conflict. Saying no when it’s necessary is akin to being honest. It… Read More »Learning to Say Yes to Saying No

How Can I Keep My Team Focused?

by Kyle Chandler
February 23, 2021March 17, 2021

We all do it. We all make commitments, sometimes even knowing that we can’t keep them as we’re making them. But what about those times when we make commitments without even realizing it? I know that when I make a promise and can’t deliver, I will do everything I can to try and meet that promise. When we make unrealistic commitments, it negatively impacts sustainability in our work. A typical… Read More »How Can I Keep My Team Focused?

3 Steps to Decrease Stress and Increase Focus using Kanban

by Kyle Chandler
December 13, 2020March 4, 2021

If you’re like me, you hate feeling over-worked. You hate being pulled in many different directions and not being able to focus on what’s important. You find it very difficult to communicate what you have on the go and how overloaded you are. You notice that you can’t get anything done, and the pressure to get things done is high. Unfortunately, most of the time, it’s hard to gauge just… Read More »3 Steps to Decrease Stress and Increase Focus using Kanban

Are You Mature Enough for Your Customers?

by Kyle Chandler
November 30, 2020December 13, 2020

Are you mature enough for your customers? You may find the question to be absurd. Of course, professionals in software and FinTech companies are almost certainly fully functioning adults. Nonetheless, the businesses they work for and run are often woefully immature. It’s a challenge faced by a surprising number of companies. Allow me to explain what I mean by levels of maturity in business, as described by David Anderson in… Read More »Are You Mature Enough for Your Customers?

How Blizzard’s IT Department Eliminated Multitasking and Customer Complaints Using Kanban

by Kyle Chandler
November 17, 2020December 13, 2020

The name Blizzard is an internationally recognized name in the world of skiing. They have also been recognized for their rapid improvements in the IT department after implementing Kanban. At the sixth annual CIO & IT Manager Summit in Vienna, Blizzard’s CIO, Eric-Jan, received the “CIO of the Year” award. Anyone who is struggling with customer complaints can learn from Blizzard’s IT Department’s dramatic improvement. Their IT department was a… Read More »How Blizzard’s IT Department Eliminated Multitasking and Customer Complaints Using Kanban

Kanban Is More than Just a Board

by Kyle Chandler
November 4, 2020December 13, 2020

I spend a lot of time explaining the Kanban system and how it works to people who have never heard of it. However, I also encounter a lot of misperceptions among people who think they understand Kanban, but really don’t. These misperceptions hold people back from really embracing the Kanban Method and achieving optimal results. The first misperception is that Kanban is just a board that hangs on a wall,… Read More »Kanban Is More than Just a Board

For Leaders Who Just Want to Do Better

by Kyle Chandler
October 23, 2020December 13, 2020

Your customers love what you do, you’re doing pretty well, you’re delivering effectively and reliably, but you know you could be delivering better. You want to do better for your customers. You want to see if you can cut your delivery time even though you don’t necessarily need to because you want to double the value for your customers. This is certainly the ideal situation, and if it describes you,… Read More »For Leaders Who Just Want to Do Better

You’re All Fired! (Just Kidding)

by Kyle Chandler
October 9, 2020December 13, 2020

Your organization may be treading water or even floundering. You may be losing customers due to being unable to deliver work on time, or customer acquisition and satisfaction are dropping. Whatever the case may be, you recognize that changes must be made. In my recent blog post, “Revolutionary Change: What is it? Why is it Risky?” I explain that there are two opposite approaches to bringing about change in a… Read More »You’re All Fired! (Just Kidding)

I Hate Zipper Merges!

by Kyle Chandler
September 30, 2020December 13, 2020

Zipper merges drive me insane. The highway has a sudden bottleneck – one minute you’re driving with several lanes open, and suddenly six lanes collapse into four or two. And while some people politely wait their turn to merge, aggressive drivers pass everyone up and zip into the merge lane at the last minute. (It’s infuriating, but actually, that’s also totally correct.) The result is often road rage, loud horns,… Read More »I Hate Zipper Merges!