The Secret History of Kanban

This is an interesting video on the origin of Kanban in the IT domain. The speaker Darren Davis worked with David Anderson at Corbis, the company described in the blue book of Kanban.

Darren describes how they started experimenting with new ways of doing things, then adjusting them to make them work. It was about experimenting, starting from theory to practical applications, keeping what was working and trashing what was not.

It shows how critical context can be. It also points out we sometimes focus too much on frameworks and methods, rather than developing a mindset of experimentation, learning, and evolution. It’s from a mix of theory and experimentation that we can find the right combination of practices and personalization leading to high performances.