I became familiar with Lean Change five years ago through Jason Little book. I started reading, delving deeper, and applying canvases, and above all, engaging in conversations with the stakeholders involved in the change. Lean Change is a set of tools, practices, and a philosophy for modern change management. The Lean aspect, for me, is incredibly powerful, not just because it's based on Lean Startup. Lean Change is a massive waste eliminator. Not only does it involve important and necessary stakeholders rapidly and iterate with them, but it also identifies problems and potential bottlenecks among sponsors, managers, and those involved. It enables leading change in a rhythm of cadence and trial-error with adaptation and continuous learning applicable to:
- Implementing changes in tools, architectures, etc.
- Implementing changes in ways of working, frameworks, etc.
- Implementing new behaviors through leadership changes.
To me, Lean Change Management is an essential toolkit for generating value and maximizing the value of any transformation for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, Change Agents, and Leaders. But above all, it's about adapting change to the organization, the "context," the pace of change, and the waves of change (Change Agility is very powerful in this regard).
Starting in 2020, I considered becoming a trainer precisely to use Lean and Lean Change to pedagogically help implement new tools in organizations that optimize the value of change management. Fully dedicated to Lean Change, because for me, it's the driver of any transformation, strategically and at the gemba, where things happen; it's the heart and brain of the transformation, optimized by eliminating waste, generating traction, and uncovering change.
The potential of Lean Change is immense: co-creating, involving, visualizing, and making the change transparent, while giving a voice to all involved parties. Lean Change is human; it's not about applying for the sake of applying. It's about speaking, listening, observing, and rallying efforts around the necessary momentum in the change at hand. Lean Change is about people and for people, about conversations, pausing, showcasing, reflecting, deciding, and taking action.
In my over 15 years with Lean and Agile, as a trainer, I have evolved to the point where my training sessions are concise and effective. Learning requires moments of instruction, practice, and internalization. The cognitive load we experience in our daily lives and jobs doesn't allow us to achieve the desired learning outcomes from one or two-day training sessions in a row. I have been practicing for years, and with COVID and the post-COVID era, even more so, with groups of 4 to 8 participants at most, in 2-hour sessions on consecutive days if time urgency demands it, or on alternate days as I prefer, to provide a unique experience:
- Delivering higher quality training with a reduced amount of content per session.
- Allowing time for assimilation, asking questions, and raising queries.
- Practicing what's been learned between sessions.
- Sharing what's been learned through practice, receiving feedback, and fostering shared learning.
This approach yields significantly better results. You can almost tailor your training pace, without stress or pressure, enjoying a learning journey. Moreover, you can subsequently benefit from continuous support if desired, to further advance your learning.
By the way, this evolution has been thanks to applying Lean Change even in my personal life, not just professionally, experiencing and continuously evolving based on learning from mistakes.
