Do a Lean Coffee to accelerate continuous improvement [+video]
The most common practice of continuous improvement on the team level is a Retrospective meeting. Retros focus on the past and generate ideas about what we can improve next. Retros are extremely valuable.
But…
Additionally, we may attack continuous improvement from another angle.
And this is Lean Coffee.
Lean Coffee is a structured but agenda-less meeting.
After the participants join the meeting, it works like this:
Participants list down the topics they would like to discuss.
Participants vote for the topics.
Some topic wins, and the discussion starts.
As simple as that.
The good thing about it is that you may detach from past problems. People may find the topics around articles they’ve read, some practices they had at previous companies, or something interesting they heard about.
It is supposed to be learning and fun focused. Not about fixing things.
After the discussion, you may develop action items, but this is not mandatory.
The most important is the learning that stays in the head of the participants.
How to facilitate a meeting?
Here’s a short video explaining it.
I cannot use videos on Substack, so let’s try with this Google Drive link.