Kanban Boards are widely used in agile teams, and are mostly represented with colorful post its. It shows how work moves from left to right, each column represents a stage of the overall process. The 4 columns most used are, To Do, In Progress, In Review, and Complete. The purpose of the visual boards is to bring your team together to inspect and adapt constantly increasing teams output and quality. It promotes collaboration, teamwork and accountability.
So how did I infuse Kanban boards in my daily life? I tried it with Saturday Chores. I have 3 teenagers/young adults and I spend more time texting reminders and writing lists and it has become a nightmare. So, I decided to try the Kanban system and create one of the boards for Saturday Chores. And since this was a family event, I just knew I was going to get push back especially from my husband, who says “don’t bring work home”. However, I called a brief family meeting, explained how Kanban works, it’s intent, and if successful the results for the family. My daughter is the youngest and loves art projects, so we created the Kanban board from one of her 3 folded presentation boards and of course post its. The colorful post-it notes included task assignments, represented by one verb and one noun.
Example:
Verb: Vacuum, Noun: Room
Verb: Clean, Noun: Microwave
Fast Forward-> Clock is now set at 1.5 hours, and to my amazement, all my children began to collaborate and move tasks into the column marked, In Progress. They seemed to be having fun and the chores were getting done. My husband even contributed to this event, however, he would complete a task but forget to move the task over. As their coach, I minimized the confusion and explain the importance of avoiding re-work, and how that can slow the team down. Clock now has 30 minutes left, and Bam! Chores are complete. I would definitely do this again and even though we were doing chores, it was nice to see everyone help one another.
I would love to hear more ways to use the Kanban Board in daily life and if you like this approach.
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