GTD & Kanban: Similarities, Differences & Synergies Between The Two

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In this article in the "GTD & Personal Kanban Series" we will explore the why? behind bringing GTD & Personal Kanban together.

What is Getting Things Done (GTD)?

GTD emerged as a highly effective and popular personal productivity approach in the early two thousands. The approach consists of a five stage process, a workflow to guide that process and a couple of techniques for handling choice around what to do at any given moment, what should be progressed as soon as possible or someday/maybe, and also, how to handle life and work's various horizons - from now at this moment, all the way through to what is important to you in life as a whole. 

This article isn't a '101' on GTD, for that there are plenty of resources available, which are linked to here. On a personal note, I find that GTD frees my mind enabling me to focus totally on the tasks at hand, and also represents a concrete approach to help achieve Stephen Covey's first three habits of his famous: The Seven Habits of highly Effective People.

What is Kanban?

This whole site is about Kanban in the context of solving personal and group problems around the home and workplace,  for a great 101 head over to here.Kanban has allowed me to increase the throughput of things getting done.SimilaritiesThough targeted at different problems, there are similarities between Kanban & GTD.

• The breaking down of "stuff" into discrete items to be processed - With GTD this happens as part of taking each item from the physical and/or electronic inboxes and asking if it is actionable, and if so, what is the next physical action.  With Kanban, we create stories which form the Kanbans themselves, to then be placed on a backlog.

• Inboxes & Backlogs - These are both areas where potential work is collected, and represents the start of either a GTD process with inboxes, or a Kanban process with backlogs.  The similarity here will differ based on context, and it's fair to say that with a backlog, some initial processing of the material onto the backlog may have taken place.  With GTD, raw material is added to the physical or electronic inboxes.

• Lists, lists & more lists - Both GTD & Kanban utilise lists.  In GTD's case it can take any form as the process is not prescriptive in it's concrete implementation.  In Kanban's case, there are lists, though they are split into dimensions, such as stage/state/work station the story is at, and there is additional process related information, like WIP limits and checklists.

• Contexts - Kanban & GTD are very flexible in their applications.  Both can be shaped to fit various situations.  For example, manufacturing cars, or managing your reading list in the case of Kanban.  GTD can have a "context list" for pretty much anything you can imagine, from a specific location to a situation you find yourself in, where certain work makes sense.

• With both GTD & Kanban granularity is important - For GTD, it's not about writing lists of goals: "buy milk", "fill in tax return", but rather, GTD is concerned with determining the next action required and given the right context or time, just performing that action without having to constantly figure out the next step each time.  In Kanban's case, it favours work items that are discrete, unambiguous and ideally of a similar "size" to reduce variance.

• Support for levels of granularity - Kanban can achieve this with a kind of nesting of Kanbans and horizontal swim-lanes.  Or, multiple Kanbans, one representing a higher level of granularity than the other, whereby the items in the "Kanban in the large" are related to those being processed in the "Kanban in the small".  I use an approach like this with my current projects and their related current actions being processed.  GTD achieves multiple levels of granularity with lists.  There is: purpose, vision, goals, focus, projects and plenty of contexts, for example "At work" & "At home".

• Addressing Waste - Kanban addresses waste explicitly as does GTD.  Kanban using WIP limiting and "stop the line" techniques with a general attitude of continuous improvement.  GTD insists that any piece of "stuff" that enters your world should be processed once and once only, by using techniques like a 'Zero Inbox' policy and the 'Two-Minute Rule'.

• Pull - At the most abstract level, both approaches exist to process work to fulfill a demand.  Both approaches pull work through a process to achieve the goal of getting valuable stuff done.

This is encouraging, it would appear that we have a lot to work with in terms of bringing these ideas together.

Differences between GTD and Kanban

There are obvious differences in the two approaches, given they are aimed at different problems. However, I find little that is polarised or in conflict but rather the differences are complementary in enhancing areas of non-existence or weakness in the other, when applied to personal productivity.

• Reduced backlog size versus a clear head - Kanban comes from the world of Lean Manufacturing, where the Theory of Constraints philosophy is pervasive.  Large backlogs are considered to be wasteful as the cost of maintaining them and the friction they cause impacts the value that will be generated. A backlog that is sized so that it is processed rapidly and renewed with new stories regularly is considered ideal.  GTD is different to this, there are no caps, implied or artificial.  GTD encourages a clear head, to reduce stress and allow complete focus on the task at hand.  Obviously, there is a conflict there on face value.  In the past I had GTD action lists with hundreds of action items on them, and project and someday/maybe lists with 10s of items.

• Kanban allows for Work In Progress (WIP) limiting -  GTD doesn't explicitly try to limit that which is being worked on in any hard manner, rather a softer approach which asks if something is relevant against focus, goals, vision, purpose or just plain want to do it now.  Sadly, GTD can lead to thrashing, when the total number of options for doing is enormous.  Kanban is all about focus, and if used well can seriously reduce the chance, let alone the act of context switching.

• Visual control - Although I'm sure there are ways this could be addressed currently, as a whole, most GTD implementations seem to be light on visualisation of WIP.  Kanban is all about visualisation.

• Process definition - GTD has a definite default process, which is not prescriptive in so far it's not all or nothing.  Kanban doesn't define a default, but rather provides tools to be used in a greater or lesser extent to get the right result in a context.

• Prioritisation - In GTD there is no prioritisation as such.  By virtue of the fact something is actionable, it will either appear in a context action list, calendar, waiting for (delegation) or may appear project list.  With Kanban there are  all kinds of ways priorities can be defined.

• Time critical actions - Kanban is about flow, so specific times and dates aren't catered for.  GTD does use calendars and possibly tickle files to cater for those things that do need attending to at a specific time and date.

I am certain there are more differences here, so please do highlight any to better our understanding.

Synergise

Lots of similarities and lots of differences, generally of a non-conflicting nature. The question is, where can we benefit from bringing these powerful approaches together?  Lets see...Kanban can help GTD a lot! The problem I have had with GTD is flow, thrashing and WIP limiting at all stages in particular contexts, especially the backlog.  I know there is waste there, given the number of times I have conducted a review and found:

• It takes ages because of the size of the backlog.

• I find out-of-date actions/projects, again due to the size of the backlog.

• Feel like i should be getting some of the value of the review just by doing, instead of waiting for the end of the week review.

• I have also struggled with pulling projects from the someday/maybe into current projects lists.

GTD can help Kanban in a personal productivity context by:

• Providing a way for people to clear their heads to focus on what is at hand.

• Excellent techniques for identifying what should be done or not.

• Doing actions not goals, by forcing the right questions at the beginning of processing "stuff", instead of constantly asking what do I need to with this?

• Handle work that needs to be on the calendar and most importantly some simple rules to motivate doing!  The Two Minute Rule being a great example.

• Delegation.

• Levels of focus in life and work.  Kanban doesn't address what it is you are flowing toward.

Over the coming posts in this series I will try to illustrate the above synergies with examples.  Again, please do comment, I'm keen to explore this more myself.

Sente and Gote in Personal Kanban

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Sometimes your relationship to work is initiative based, other times it is reactive.  This is simply the nature of work. It is normal, and nothing - not Personal Kanban, not GTD - is going to change that.In the game “Go” (“Weiqi” in Chinese) there are balanced strategic concepts for the natural ebbs and flows of taking the initiative or reacting to a change in a situation.  “Sente” is the term for the initiative, “Gote” is the term for being reactive.In English, we’d be tempted to equate these to Offense and Defense.  However, there’s a subtle difference here. The word “defense” has a few connotations we’d like to avoid when working. One is that you are on the defensive when you’ve lost control of something. The other is that the goal of your defensive strategy is to quickly regain an offensive strategy.This comes from the animal brain inside us all. Reaction is the gazelle taking flight when the cheetah springs forth. Reaction, for human beings, naturally caries a fight or flight response.In Go, Sente and Gote positions are perfectly acceptable at all times. There are Go Masters who can win a game and play almost entirely from a Gote position. The Sensei knows that reaction is itself an action.Why is this important?Life comes at you fast. The nature of personal work is that some days are quiet, comfortable, and predictable. They are yard work or cleaning the house. Systematic and reassuring. Other days your water heater explodes and covers your basement in water, steam, and destruction.Some days you are at work, methodically finishing up your report and other days you are surprised to get a report back with particularly nasty comments and an unrealistic deadline to fix it.On days like this we realize that life doesn’t always respect our personal goals. Mopping up water and pulling down saturated wall board isn’t helping us achieve our goal of learning Spanish. This makes us feel like we are on the English term defensive, and that upsets us.  We wanted to learn Spanish by Tuesday and now we have to wait.Well, this is why most businesses fail. It’s why bosses are cranky.  It’s why people don’t feel they get what they want from consultants.  It’s why that damn plumber is STILL HERE installing the dishwasher.Life is by its very nature chaotic. We’re lucky that it is predictably so, but it still does not adhere to our plans. Whether you are doing Sente or Gote work, the work needs to be done. The best way to assure rapid and effective completion is to look past the emotions of “defensive” and accept Gote into the attainment of your goals.What Personal Kanban seeks to do is visualize how your work is actually done. It actually accounts for exploding water heaters and other unexpected events because, over time, your throughput will reflect these.So, say you have 20 projects at home and they have an average cycle time of 4 weeks from conception to completion.  The mean time to completion though, might only be 2 weeks.  There were a few outliers in there that took 6 or 8 due to unforseen events.What you know from this is that you have a maximum of 8 weeks to complete a household project, it’ll usually be done around 2 and that 6 is a very safe number to promise completion by, with 8 being virtually guaranteed.  As you notice this, you can start to examine why those 8s are happening.I’d be willing to bet those 8s are projects that developed a defensive posture and were delayed due to emotional reasons. In short, they were shelved because they became too hard to finish. Well, those unfinished projects mount up and procrastination has a price. You now have a 2 to 8 week variance in the time it takes you to finish something around the house.So we can examine those projects. Are the 8 week ones just more complex? Do they involving cleaning? Yard work? Being outside when the chatty neighbor might want to chew your ear off? Are they perhaps even unimportant?When you find the commonalities in the outliers, you can then develop Gote strategies.  As I said, Go Masters are unfazed by adopting a Gote posture because there are deep and tested strategies for achieving victory from Gote maneuvers. Part of this is tactical series of moves that undo an offensive maneuver by your opponent, but the other part is mental. Reaction to events whether on the Go board or in life in general is natural.  Acceptance of this natural relationship calms the fight / flight response in our animal brains and allows us to quickly and effectively deal with the unexpected work. This reduces the time to completion, shrinks our cycle time, and eliminates outliers.Be calm, deal with the issues, reduce variance.

Personal Kanban: Tangible Tasks Produce Prioritization

Planning and prioritizing is a wicked problem that has plagued humankind since time immemorial. – Corey Ladas

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Human beings want three things in life: sex, money and effective prioritization.There appears to be a logical and linear three-stage process of better prioritization as you become familiar with kanban. The process follows the three main characteristics of the cardwall and how they insidiously work their way into your psyche.Stage One: The VisualSimply viewing the tasks on the kanban cardwall makes them conspicuous. The tasks on the card wall have a shape or a volume. They consume space on your board and you can only fit so many on at a time.  Your brain sees this and suddenly, perhaps for the first time, your workload has a coherent form.  It may be overwhelming, but you can now see it.A necessary drive for prioritization stems from this physical form.  You want to only fit tasks in that finite space that are going to do the most for you. At this point, you’re most likely to do this by sight, as you complete one task you’ll grab the next one that “looks best”. Let’s call this immediate gratification prioritization.  It’s better than letting fate guide you and an excellent start.Stage Two: The PermanentThe cardwall is on the wall and it is permanent. You don’t put it in a box at night. You don’t hide it when the boss stops by. The cardwall is your professional superego. It is reminding you of what you are doing, why it benefits society, and what will happen to you if you don’t finish. If you have colleagues, they can see what you are doing. if your personal kanban is shared they may even have a stake in your task completion. In this case, you may want to start having some logical prioritization that might resemble Corey’s Priority Filter.  Corey’s Priority Filter creates “buckets” with limited capacity that show tasks trickling down from your backlog into your ready-queue.  Here, you are starting to plan for future prioritization. At any time, you can rearrange things, but the priority filter lets you set up a prioritization that shares the same permanence as the kanban itself. Each part of the ready-queue Let’s call this progressive filtration.Stage Three: The TactileThe cardwall is tactile. You have to reach up and grab something and move it around. As it moves, it has a flow. You begin to see how you collect, collaborate on, and complete different kinds of tasks. Even in the most chaotic of situations, there are rhythms to types of work. What is happening now? You are constantly doing work and therefore constantly physically interacting with the board. At this point, prioritization itself begins to get a flow. You recognize that as tasks enter your backlog, some will seem more important on some days that others. Some have higher value to the team than others.Corey and Eric Willeke asynchronously put their heads together and came up with Perpetual Multivote. This process recognizes that good decision making has both temporal and social components. As context changes over time for people, what seems important also changes. Perpetual multivote places backlog items on a visual board. Voters get a certain number of tokens and can vote any time and as much they want for the upcoming backlog items until they run out of tokens. They can reallocate their tokens whenever they want as well. They see how their peers vote and can make their decisions based on that context. In the picture above each line is a backlog item and each dot is a vote from a team member.Perpetual multivote clearly represents the tactile nature of the cardwall.  It might be called contextual prioritization.Do You See What’s Happening Here?Right now some of the most popular games for portable platforms like the Nintendo DS are games like Brain Age that help you train your brain. They’re like the antidote for cage fighting. These games work not so much by teaching you math or algebra, but by getting your brain to react to certain stimuli that promote attentiveness, appropriate response and retention.Your brain can learn to think “better” simply by being sensitized to the actions of better thinking.Kanban does this as well by creating a physical space (the cardwall) in which these concepts (tasks) can live - where the human brain can grasp and manipulate them better. As people, we learn in different ways. Some of us are visual learners, others are auditory, some contextual, some literal…. Vive la différence, sure – but for those who have tried to manage la différence … history is filled with managerial pain and anguish.Cardwalls tend to equalize varying learning styles by presenting information with a logical flow and cadence. Everyone from your scattered ADHDer to your hyperfocused Asperberger can grasp a kanban – because it does have elements of context for all learning styles.Like Brain Age, kanban starts to train our brains to see work in a new way. Not as an unfocused pile of tasks and subtasks and subsubtasks, but as a set of tasks with very real impacts on our lives. As we begin to see the form and flow of these tasks, our abilities to prioritize can improve.This is post four in my personal kanban series.Kanban examples built in AgileZen, review coming soon.Multivote image from Corey’s Multivote blog post. (why mess with perfection?)

Recursive Kanban – A Visual Control for Rapid Knowledge Work

Recursive Kanban in Action

Recursive Kanban for Small Groups

A visual control is anything that allows a group to see their progress, and understand its relative importance. To be sure, a kanban is a visual control, but there are nevertheless some limitations to it.  The biggest limitation to a kanban is that it is linear.  Work, especially knowledge work, is not always linear.At a recent WriteShop Tonianne and I ran at the World Bank, we set out to run the process with a kanban.  It quickly became apparent that the linear flow of the kanban was not going to work with the rapid and recursive iterations of this particular project.This project set out initially to create a document in five days that was made up of several modules. When we started, each module was in a different state of completion. The original assumption was that there would be a workflow that went something like “concept,” “components,” “outline,” “draft,” and “final,” and we’d make a mission-based kanban for each module.What ended up happening was very different. Scientists from around the world sat down on Monday and, fully aware they were not ready to write, instead began to talk. Those discussions redefined what exactly was needed for each module. That was good.What was even better was the evolution – the discussion became a product development discussion. Who was the client? What did they really need? What could this group produce by the deadline?And suddenly we had a spreadsheet model the clients could use for doing the analysis described in the document. That model, in turn, drove an entire, organic, and rapid rethinking of the layout of the entire document.  Suddenly we had coherence.Then … it was time to write. We set up a visual control that was deceptively simple. The control has 4 columns: “Module,” “Outline,” “Text,” and “Draft.” This was because we knew that the workflow was not going to be linear. As text was written in the document, it informed what else needed to be in the document. Therefore, some outline would be written, then some text, then the outline augmented, then more text, then some discussion, then more outline, and so on.This means there was no “pull” from outline to text.  So we used numbers to mark a 1 to 10 level for “complete” and checked back a couple times a day, crossing out the old numbers and entering new ones.The “Draft” column quickly changed to an “Issues” column. This allowed us to have very detailed stand-up meetings (short 10 to 20 minute discussions) about status twice daily.At each stand-up, the numbers would be entered for each stage. Sometimes they would go down. If you look closely, you can see 8s go to 7s.  The group found that amusing, but what was happening was they were learning more and more about what “Complete” in this particular context meant. Clarity for the deliverable was rising on a daily basis, even if the estimation of complete was falling.Some days the “text” ranking would go up, even as the ranking for the same module’s outline fell. People were writing text, discovering new needs, then noting that they weren’t yet incorporated in the outline.The visual control allowed us to build a type of kanban that we might call a “recursive kanban” - a visual control that allowed for the productive loops in knowledge work.  Linear kanban has a hard time dealing with productive loops like this.

Cards are Conversations

The whole point of having a visual control is to extract information from it quickly.  In this respect, the personal kanban is much like a geographic map.Geographic maps convey more than merely the physical environment, they show us things like political, historic, organizational characteristics - both real and imagined spatial constraints - which give locations their context. Similarly, the personal kanban is a map of  your work. It captures not just the tasks - but the logic, the flow that gives it an actionable framework

This is known as a pattern language.

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A language that helps us describe complex concepts simplisticly, by understanding their contexts.

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As we use the kanban to learn the pattern language of work, we have more kaizen events, more epiphanies, because we are finally understanding its true context.  We learn what value really is, what our capabilities really are.

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threats disappear

This is known as a "pattern language,"  a language that helps us describe complex concepts simplistically, by understanding their contexts. As we use the personal kanban to discern the pattern language of  our work, we encounter more kaizen events - more epiphanies - because we are finally understanding its true context.  We learn what value really is, and what our capabilities really are. Soon, threats disappear.

Modus Cooperandi Personal Kanban

I have intentionally made this personal kanban screenshot illegible because the text does not matter. What matters are the visual cues - the colors, the assignments, and the states.In this kanban, we have three staging columns: a working column, "The Pen" (to hold tasks in a state of workus interruptus), and "Complete."Immediately we see that today our WIP is filled with teal tasks.  Those happen to be for the creation of Gov 2.0 University, one of our projects.  We’re getting ready to launch the web site and conduct some media events, so this particular day was spent focusing on those tasks.We also see that yellow tasks (biz dev with a specific channel partner) make up most of the work in a waiting state.  So now we understand that on our plates for this day, we have a lot of focus on G2U, but that biz dev might rear its head as an activity from The Pen becomes active.So while those yellow tasks might interrupt us, the kanban has mentally prepared us for them.Those yellow tags likewise tell us a story over time. We know their history. Did they appear yesterday or did the come up over time? Are those tasks ones that recur and just never go away?Do we have a deluge of project tasks (e.g. teal) that need to be batched and processed as a day with a single focus? Perhaps we have a deluge of different projects, but all similar task types (e.g. phone calls) that can be batched.What personal kanban reminds us is to look beyond the tasks to the patterns that arise on the board. Work now has a shape. You can begin to think of it in other ways.You can situate it in its context. Work has a geography.With personal kanban you can now see the entire river – where it emanates from, where it reaches, and how it flows – rather than dismiss it simply as a body of water.In an upcoming post, the pattern language of work will be explored.