I always cringe a bit inside when someone says, “We need a culture change and that’s why we can’t _____.” I usually hear this from individuals who want to embed some practice in the organization but who have encountered resistance. It’s easier to say that the company has a culture problem than it is to […]
Start Here: Rapid Learning Cycles 101
How the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework Supports Real Time Knowledge Capture
Real-time knowledge capture is an essential element of the Rapid Learning Cycles framework. If a team does everything else — identifies Key Decisions and Knowledge Gaps, closes Knowledge Gaps systematically, and makes Key Decisions with confidence, the quality of their decision-making will improve and their program’s risks will burn down. That’s true even if a […]
Why You Need a Pilot Program for Your First Steps with Rapid Learning Cycles
Himalayan blackberries spread rapidly in the Pacific Northwest. They love the cloudy, drizzly weather we get most of the year and the birds that spread their seeds. Once one has taken root, they are nearly impossible to kill without poison, because any bit of root in the soil can resprout an entire blackberry bramble in […]
Agile for Hardware
Your Experts Need Cross-Project Resource Management to Thrive
Most Agile software methods operate under the key assumption that resources (software developers and testers) are interchangeable, just as user stories are independent of each other. This is one area where Agile software experts run into real trouble when they push these ideas onto hardware teams.
Agile Hardware Development Needs Convergence
An Agile Software Development team works iteratively — they write some code or make a UI design model, get fast feedback on it, improve it and add to it. Some people claim that 3D printing and other rapid prototyping methods allow hardware developers to work just as iteratively. But they are wrong, for two reasons.
Featured Posts
How to Formulate Better Key Decisions and Knowledge Gaps
When COVID hit, we had to figure out a way to train people how to use the Rapid Learning Cycles framework virtually, when up to this point, I had only delivered face-to-face workshops and strongly recommended that teams only do face-to-face kickoff events. One Key Decision in that process: what collaboration tools will we use […]
Three Ways the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework Builds Partner Engagement
On our last trip to Italy, Gene and I spent a day walking around the city walls in Lucca, a Tuscan town with a well-preserved medieval center. The townspeople of Lucca have been known for their prudence and conservation for many centuries. For example, the town continued to build walls around itself after those walls […]
Acceleration With Stability
Five Components of High Velocity Innovation
Science museums often have a coin vortex funnel for collecting donations while demonstrating the effects of rotational energy and gravity. The shape of the funnel pulls the coin down towards the center while rotation provides stability so that the coin doesn’t fall over. The coin accelerates as it moves towards the center yet stays upright, […]
Your Innovation Teams Need You
Five Ways Executive Sponsors Foster Innovations in Corporate Environments
Florence, Italy is known throughout the world for the quality of its art, architecture and craftsmanship. Florentines owe much of their present glory to the powerful merchant families that emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries. Those families sponsored artists, funded building projects and created a market for beautifully-crafted luxury goods that made Florence a […]
To Accelerate Net-Zero, Commit Early but Decide Late
A growing number of major companies are following the lead of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to set aggressive targets for achieving net zero carbon emissions in their businesses. To hit those commitments, companies need to make important decisions about where to focus the time, energy, and money they have to invest in sustainability. It may […]