How AI, OpenAI, and ChatGPT impact business and software.
Learning To Learn
1. Learning To Learn
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
- W. Edwards Deming
Does Your Agile Process Encourage Learning?
Troy Tu'le
Lean-Agile Coach
KanFlow.com
troy@kanflow.com
@troytuAle
leanagilekc.com
3. Learning Outcomes
• Feedback Loops
• Tacit Knowledge
• Double Loop Learning
• Learning and Culture
• Small Batches / Lean Startup
• Retrospectives
• Improvement Kata
Models ApplicaEon
Learning is the Constraint!
4. Coding is Learning
For the programmers in the room, imagine
writing a relatively complex algorithm that
takes about a day to complete…
Now delete the code and write the algorithm again.
How long does it take the second 5me?
5. The Work is Learning
Idea Analysis Design
Build
(Dev)
Test
“Learning” Phases “Execute” Phases
Deployment
Idea Analysis Design
Build
(Dev)
Test Deployment
“Learning” Phases “Execute”
Phases
Production
6. Learning Through Feedback Loops
2 digit lottery example:
We can buy a two-digit lottery ticket for $1.
A winning number pays off $100.
Buy Two Digits at the Same Time:
Pay $1
Make Nothing
Make $100
99%
1%
Buy Two Digits with Feedback:
Pay $0.50
Make Nothing
Pay $0.50
90%
10%
Make Nothing
Make $100
90%
10%
Expected Payoff: Zero
Expected Payoff: $0.45
Reinertsen, The Principles of Flow
7. Learning Through Feedback Loops
Doing
DoneBacklog
F
H E
C A
I
DevelopmentTo Do
Done Doing Done
G D
A D
P1
B
T
TestingAnalysis
Doing
Team
P
Internal Stakeholder
C
Customer
How quickly are we learning?
8. “We can know more than we can tell.”
Tacit Knowledge: Learning and knowledge that cannot
be wriAen down, and is difficult to express through
language. It requires a shared experience to understand.
Tacit Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge
10. Single and Double Loop Learning
The most common style of learning is just problem
solving—improving the system as it exists.
Single Loop Learning
More than just fixing the problem, this style of
learning quesEons the underlying assumpEons,
values, and beliefs behind what we do.
Double Loop Learning
--Argyris and Schon, Theory in Prac6ce, 1974
11. Single and Double Loop Learning
Results
(What we Get)
Strategies and Techniques
(What we Do)
AssumpEons
(What we Believe)
Leads to
Informs
Leads to more effecEve
QuesEon beliefs and assumpEons
--Argyris and Schon, Theory in Prac6ce, 1974
13. Schein’s Three Levels of Culture
(Visible structures, behavior, language)
(Espoused values, goals, philosophies)
(Underlying beliefs, tacit assumpEons)
Changing culture is fundamentally a
challenge of learning
ArEfacts
Values
AssumpEons
14. Application of Learning Models
ü Feedback loops enable learning
ü Small batches allow us to accelerate feedback loops
ü Much of our Knowledge is Tacit, so we must act on it
before it evaporates.
ü ReflecEon tools like retrospecEves enable double
loop learning
ü Improvement Kata provides structure for single and
double loop learning
16. Tacit Knowledge
Practices that enhance tacit knowledge learning:
1. Real-time standup meetings
2. User Story writing as a whole team
3. Limiting WIP
18. Theory of Action
Espoused Theory Theory-in-use
Espoused Theory Theory-in-use
≠
=
Prevents Double Loop Learning
Enables Double Loop Learning
--Argyris and Schon, Theory in Prac6ce, 1974
24. Learning To Learn
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
- W. Edwards Deming
Does Your Agile Process Encourage Learning?
Troy Tu'le
Lean-Agile Coach
KanFlow.com
troy@kanflow.com
@troytuAle
leanagilekc.com