"When staying busy hides the real problem"
In a recent standup, the team suggested pulling new work into the sprint. “We’ve got nothing to do right now—we’ll just be twiddling our thumbs.” I glanced at the board, “Ready for QA,” “In QA,” “Code Review” were all overflowing. The team wasn’t idle. The work just wasn’t flowing. It’s easy to confuse starting new work with making progress. That’s the thinking behind a phrase from the Lean and Kanban world: “Stop starting, start finishing.” When you focus on flow, not busyness, you get feedback faster, unblock teammates sooner, and learn quicker. So next time your team reaches for something new, try asking: What would happen if we finished what we’ve already started? Until next time, |