Bio
Patrick Steyaert is a founder and principal coach and trainer at Okaloa. He helps organisations to innovate and change. He works with customers ranging from high-tech SME’s to large incumbent companies. He is an expert in Lean and Agile with practical experience in both software, IT, and technology businesses as well as non-IT (logistics management, HR, ...)
Patrick holds a PHD in computer science and was involved as director in several start-ups. He has more than 15 years of experience of leading change and innovation in organisations. He is an LKU accredited Kanban trainer and Kanban Coaching Professional. He is an international speaker and winner of the Lean Kanban North America 2015 Brickell-Key award for his contribution in the development of Discovery Kanban, a method to manage knowledge work in the context of innovation and change.
Session Title
From Upstream to Portfolio Kanban, a Fresh look
Session Overview
Portfolio Kanban plays a crucial role in balancing demand with capability at the highest level of the organization. Most Portfolio Kanban systems are shallow, as is the currently available guidance. It does not go much further than visualization and a cadence of conversations. At best there is a crude notion of limiting the amount of initiatives in progress. It is time to take the next step. In this presentation we build on our experiences with implementing Upstream Kanban and using systems dynamics to give insight and guidance on creating enterprise flow with Upstream and Portfolio Kanban. We start from Upstream Kanban where we address the problem of managing a fluctuating demand. We analyse the feedback loops and delays that are the source of oscillation and show how to turn oscillation into a (more) steady end-to-end flow. We discuss capacity constraints, liquidity problems and ways of organizing the marketplace that emerges when needs of diverse customers with possibly conflicting priorities need to be matched with a heterogenous capability. Finally, we discuss the role of triage in a portfolio with incommensurable choices.
Keynote
Business Agility with Scaled Agile Thinking
Session Overview
Business agility requires scaled lean and agile thinking, more than just scaled lean and agile practices. Change must be bootstrapped in order to manage the tension between the need to align the organization to the strategic commitment of becoming an agile business and the aim to create organization-wide engagement. From the top down, this requires new ways of teaching and coaching that instil new ways of thinking more than just doing. From the bottom up, this new way of thinking must inspire (contagious) action, not just talk.
