In my career, working with hundreds of companies, I’ve almost never seen organisations* take a truly deliberate approach to continuous improvement. It’s nearly always treated as an afterthought or add-on to business-as-usual (BAU). But real transformation requires making continuous improvement an integral and core part of daily work. This is the “why” behind FlowChain – enabling deliberate, in-band continuous improvement.

In other words, applying the same disciplines from product development, delivery, etc. to the business (sic) of delivering continuous improvements  – continuously improving the way the work works.

What Is FlowChain?

So what is FlowChain? At its core, it is a system for managing flow – both the flow of outputs and the flow of improvements to the way the work works, concurrently and by the same means. And by “flow”, I mean the steady progress of work from request to completion through all steps in a process. Flow is optimised when the right work is happening at the right time by the right people. Roadblocks, delays, and waste are minimised or eliminated.

Flow

Optimising flow delivers the following benefits:

• Increased productivity – less time wasted, more work completed
• Improved quality – fewer defects, rework minimised
• Better customer service – faster response times, reliability
• Higher employee engagement – less frustration, more joy

But achieving flow requires continuous improvement. Problems must be made visible. Waste must be reduced iteratively. Roadblocks must be cleared continuously.

This is why FlowChain incorporates improvement into its regular rhythm. Each cycle follows a deliberate sequence:

• Plan – Select and sequence the upcoming work.
• Execute – Complete the work while tackling issues.
• Review – Analyse completed work and identify improvements.
• Adjust – Make changes to improve flow.

Unlike most continuous improvement efforts – that are separate from BAU – FlowChain makes improvement an integral in-band activity. The rapid cycles provide frequent opportunities to reflect, gain insights, and act.

Compounding Benefits

Over time, the compounding benefits are immense. Teams develop a “flow habit”, where improving flow becomes second nature. Powerful capabilities like root cause analysis, A3 problem-solving, improvement katas, and change management are honed.

In my experience, this deliberate approach is transformative. Teams gain tremendous agency to systematically improve their own flow. The organisation as a whole cultivates a culture of continuous improvement. And customers experience ever-better service and responsiveness.

The “why” of FlowChain is simple – create focus, visibility, accountability, and agency to drive continuous improvement. The results – ever better flow, reduced waste, and sustainable transformation. Deliberate, in-band continuous improvement stops being an aspiration and becomes a reality.

*Ask me about the exception.

Just Another Way of Dividing A Whole Into Parts?

Are value streams just one more way of dividing a whole organisation into parts? Isn’t “division into parts” a hallmark and defining characteristic of the Analytic mindset? And something we’re trying to avoid in pursuit of the Synergistic ideals presented in Quintessence? 

As the inimitable Russell L. Ackoff says:

A system is more than the sum of its parts; it is an indivisible whole. It loses its essential properties when it is taken apart. The elements of a system may themselves be systems, and every system may be part of a larger system.

~ Russell L. Ackoff

The Structure Of The Moment

At The Quintessential Group, we’ve chosen value streams as the structure of the moment. Not as a mean to subdivide the Group into parts, but as an experiment, as a way to encourage synergies within the whole. Our hypothesis is that by divorcing hierarchy from structure, we create an environment better suited to serving the needs of the Folks That Matter.

We are concerned with total systems performance, and the relationships between the parts (value streams) much more than managing each part, each value stream, separately. In fact, the “management” of each part is pretty much irrelevant and not something we’ll be spending time on.

Even The Quintessential Group as a whole is part of larger, or containing, systems. We may choose to see the Group, and its value streams, as holons, as holarchies. As stable intermediate forms. See: The Parable of the Two Watchmakers.

Borrowing from the language of Arthur Koestler, a value stream serves as a subsystem within the larger system: We can regard it as an evolving, self-organizing structure while simultaneously a part of a greater system composed of other value streams i.e The Quintessential Group.

Enough With The Philosophy Already

So, what practical benefits do we foresee from the value stream approach?

• More coherent (less fragmented) experience for clients.
• Improved flow of value.
• Increased synergies resulting in a more effective organisation and thus affording an improved customer experience.
• Reduction in delays, wastes, and non-value-adding activities.
• Improvements in takt time and smoothness of value flow.

How do you feel about value streams as e.g. a structuring approach for organisations?

– Bob

One pleasing aspect of our new startup – The Quintessential Group, is the opportunity to implement Prod•gnosis.

We’re intent on building an organisation (the Group) along value stream lines. With a separate value stream for each market we serve. In mooted order of instantiation:

• • Quintessential Teams (rent a gelled team by e.g. the fortnight)
  • Quintessential Recruiting (we source Quintessential people)
  • Quintessential Worx / Works (commission us to build the solutions you need)
  • Quintessential Culture Shift (Digital Transformations, Culture Change, etc.)
  • Quintessential Memes (meme exploration and installation services)
  • Quintessential People (serving clients’ HR function)
  • Quintessential Academy (training in all things Organisational Psychotherapy and Quintessential)
  • Quintessential Coaches (organisational coaches for rent)
  • Quintessential Mentors (personal mentors for rent)
  • Quintessential Tutors (personal tutors for rent)

PDVS

So, naturally – naturally for a value-stream based organisation anyways – we’re building the “product development value stream” first, albeit incrementally and in parallel with the first operational value stream i.e. Quintessential Teams. Eating our own dog food, you might say.

We’ll keep you posted on progress.

You can :

• Subscribe here for email updates
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• Follow The Quintessential Group on Linkedin

– Bob

Further Reading

Marshall, R. (2014). Product Development 101. [online] Think Different. Available at: /2014/10/15/product-development-101/ [Accessed 1 May 2022].