Tech Lead Journal

#97 - Personal Kanban & Collaboration Equation - Jim Benson


Listen Later

“A highly functional team defines the right environment and has what they need to be the best professionals they can be. And that always includes agency and psychological safety."

Jim Benson is the co-author of “Personal Kanban” and is currently working on his upcoming book “The Collaboration Equation”. In this episode, we started by discussing Personal Kanban, how it differs from a to-do list, and its two main rules, i.e. visualizing our work and limiting our work-in-progress. Jim also shared practical tips on managing our personal backlog, doing prioritization, and limiting our work in progress. In the latter half of our conversation, we discussed Jim’s new book, “The Collaboration Equation”, starting with the discussion about the common collaboration challenges and why professionalism and psychological safety are prerequisites to building high-performing teams. Jim also explained the concept of collaborative leadership and gave practical tips on how we can measure effective collaboration.

Listen out for:

  • Career Journey - [00:06:42]
  • Current State of Productivity - [00:08:17]
  • Obeya - [00:10:12]
  • Rules of Personal Kanban - [00:12:44]
  • Kanban vs Todo List - [00:14:46]
  • Managing Backlog - [00:17:07]
  • Limiting Work in Progress - [00:24:26]
  • Collaboration Equation - [00:27:36]
  • Professionalism - [00:31:06]
  • Psychological Safety - [00:33:21]
  • Collaborative Leadership - [00:36:39]
  • Collaborative Process - [00:41:04]
  • Measuring Collaboration - [00:46:09]
  • 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:51:09]
  • _____

    Jim Benson’s Bio

    Jim Benson is the CEO of Modus Cooperandi, and co-founder of Modus Institute. A pioneer in applying Lean and Kanban methodologies to knowledge work, Jim is the creator of Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee, and co-author of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life, winner of the prestigious Shingo Research and Publication Award. His other books include Why Plans Fail, Why Limit WIP, and Beyond Agile. His upcoming book The Collaboration Equation will be out in Summer 2022.

    Follow Jim:

    • Twitter – @ourfounder
    • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson
    • Modus Cooperandi – https://moduscooperandi.com/
    • Modus Institute – https://modusinstitute.com/

    • Our Sponsors

      DevTernity 2022 (devternity.com) is the top international software development conference with an emphasis on coding, architecture, and tech leadership skills. The lineup is truly stellar and features many legends of software development like Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, Kent Beck, Scott Hanselman, Venkat Subramaniam, Kevlin Henney, and many others! The conference takes place online, and we have the 10% discount code for you: AWSM_TLJ.

      Skills Matter is the global community and events platform for software professionals. It is an easier way for technologists to grow their careers by connecting you and your peers with the best-in-class tech industry experts and communities. You get on-demand access to their latest content, thought leadership insights as well as the exciting schedule of tech events running across all time zones.

      Head on over to skillsmatter.com to become part of the tech community that matters most to you - it’s free to join and easy to keep up with the latest tech trends.


      Like this episode?

      Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and submit your feedback.
      Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
      Pledge your support by becoming a patron.
      For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/97.

      ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store

      Tech Lead JournalBy Henry Suryawirawan

      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7
      • 4.7

      4.7

      14 ratings


      More shows like Tech Lead Journal

      View all
      The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish

      The Knowledge Project

      2,672 Listeners

      Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers by team@se-radio.net (SE-Radio Team)

      Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers

      273 Listeners

      The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source by Changelog Media

      The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

      288 Listeners

      Software Engineering Daily by Software Engineering Daily

      Software Engineering Daily

      626 Listeners

      Talk Python To Me by Michael Kennedy

      Talk Python To Me

      583 Listeners

      Soft Skills Engineering by Jamison Dance and Dave Smith

      Soft Skills Engineering

      287 Listeners

      Thoughtworks Technology Podcast by Thoughtworks

      Thoughtworks Technology Podcast

      44 Listeners

      The InfoQ Podcast by InfoQ

      The InfoQ Podcast

      38 Listeners

      Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats by Wes Bos & Scott Tolinski - Full Stack JavaScript Web Developers

      Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

      985 Listeners

      Today, Explained by Vox

      Today, Explained

      10,331 Listeners

      The Stack Overflow Podcast by The Stack Overflow Podcast

      The Stack Overflow Podcast

      63 Listeners

      The Big Take by Bloomberg

      The Big Take

      155 Listeners

      科技工作講 Tech Job N Talk by Tech Job N Talk 科技工作講

      科技工作講 Tech Job N Talk

      24 Listeners

      HBR On Leadership by Harvard Business Review

      HBR On Leadership

      170 Listeners

      The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz

      The Pragmatic Engineer

      77 Listeners