METACOGNITIVE TOOL is one nice chunk of jargon.Metacognition is “learning about learning.” When we have a tool for it, that tool teaches us about how we learn. When we have some understanding about that, we can start to look for new ways to use the tool to learn more effectively.This is where something called “double-loop learning” comes in.When we use the kanban in our daily work we are employing several real-time techniques and strategies to get work done. “I’m going to make my tasks so they’ll take less than a few hours to complete.” “Today I’m going to work entirely on the City of Pelentagagagua proposal.” “I will do the work for my lawyer after I get this thing out of the way for my boss.”But while we are working, we are basing those decisions on a variety of assumptions. The kanban shows us, in real-time, the impacts of our assumptions. If we begin with an assumption that our office work is more important than getting things done for the family, after a while we’ll end up with a lot of aging family tickets and a DONE column filled with work tasks.When we see this, we’ll see that there is a cost to that assumption. That cost is a lot of pent up work for the house and likely an angry spouse.Other assumptions we might be making is that one client is more important than another, that if we do large tasks first we’ll get more done, or that if we deliver product at two-week intervals we’ll have a more predictable delivery schedule.We can use the real results from the kanban to question these basic assumptions, then alter our assumptions and see the results of that.As we do this, we learn:

the results of our actions (single-loop);
the effects of our basic assumptions (double-loop); and
how that understanding impacts how we work, how we create experiments, and how we react to change (metacognition).

You have one hour. Just sixty minutes to prepare a meal for four, five courses of the highest possible quality, and with conspicuous creativity. The key ingredient comprising the meal is kept a secret until the last possible minute. While you’re used to working in a kitchen you control, surrounded by people who are trained to ensure your success, you and your team are preparing this meal in an unfamiliar location. Relatively speaking you are a novice, while the individual you are competing against is a celebrity chef of international renown for whom this type of challenge is second nature. And if these conditions aren’t stressful enough, once your meal is complete, every chef on earth will know what you’ve created, how you’ve created it, and what the judges thought. Oh, as will millions of viewers worldwide.Your reputation hangs in the balance. Failure is not an option.

How can a chef create five dishes all at the same time with this much existential overhead? Is five not a WIP-busting number?It’s the Iron Chef Paradox.

In the book

Outliers

, Malcom Gladwell invokes the “10,000 hour rule,” based upon the research of sociologist Anders Ericcson that suggests if you do something for 10,000 hours you become an expert. But what does it mean to be an expert?Our brains are pattern recognition devices. The more we practice something, the more we’re able to process its intricacies efficiently and effectively. Whether it’s golf, cooking, or even empathy, practice creates proficiency.So-called “Iron Chefs” do not see five dishes in progress. They do not see a WIP-busting workload. They see one meal for one group. The meal for them is a pattern.They can see patterns foremost in the food itself. Chefs know what the current level of completeness is by sight. The food - for them - is a visual control. Simply looking at a fillet of sea bass on a grill from across the kitchen is sufficient. As it transforms from translucent to milky-white, the chef knows how close it is to done. This is known as prototype matching. As we work through those 10,000 hours, we build up a library of pattern prototypes to recognize.Understanding prototypes allows Iron Chefs to effectively prioritize under extreme duress. You put your rack of lamb on long before you plate your ice cream. Without understanding both the time and sequence of the patterns, effective prioritization is highly unlikely.Patterns are all around us, we just need to sensitize ourselves to them. We need to be aware of what we are practicing and do it purposefully. With Personal Kanban, we have a visual control and can actually practice living. In the past, we just worked. Even though we‘ve all had a lifetime of starting and (sometimes) completing tasks, we’re often oblivious to the patterns and unaware of the prototypes of our work. Without recognizing these, without understanding how our choices impact our future, our WIP limits have been strained sending our stress levels through the roof.Chefs like Bobby Flay understand the patterns and prototypes of cooking so well, they can create dessert out of tuna.What can we accomplish on a Saturday with a mixed backlog? What can we create with our colleagues at the office in a week? What patterns are there to help us recognize pitfalls and find success?

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Order an Iron Chef Apron here

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Metacognitive Tool: Element #8 of the Kanban

The Iron Chef Paradox