Work on one thing: Improvement katas and cultures of continuous improvement

Small, focused steps can lead to extraordinary results

Agile teams often juggle multiple priorities, making it challenging to drive meaningful improvements. When I was Product Manager for Thoughtworks’ digital, our team was spread across multiple continents and we were serving both local and global needs across the business, from recruitment, sales, marketing and every Thoughtworker. There was high expectations that our team would eat our own dog food and our digital channels would personify the lasted opinions, tools and ways of working outlined in the Thoughtworks Tech Radar. Lastly, Thoughtworks.com needed to be secure as it could be to protect our brand.

Seperate to all the varying demands and priorities, we intentionally rotated new joiners and graduate Thoughtworkers into the digital teams as a way of giving them a safe environment to learn from some of our most tenured thoughtworkers.

All the Thoughtworkers I’ve worked with are passionate about improvement in every aspect of their kraft. But making meaningful imrpovements across all the areas of agile software developement is challenging!

This is where the Improvement Katas came in. Derived from the lean manufacturing principles of Toyota, it’s a structured approach to breaking down complex challenges into smaller, manageable steps.

The core idea is simple, focus on one thing at a time. We chose Security as our first candidate. By concentrating on a single improvement, our team could achieve significant results without getting overwhelmed. The important bit was that the whole team was focused on the same improvement.

Our four-step process Improvement Katas was as follows:

  1. Understand the Challenge. Clearly define the problem or opportunity. Choose a problem that significantly impacts the team or customer
  2. Grasp the Current Condition. Analyse the current state and identify gaps.
  3. Set a Target Condition. Define a clear, achievable goal for improvement. Whilst we all want to stretch ourselves, the rule when using Improvement kata’s is minor incremental improvements that combine to make a more significant improvement over time.
  4. Take Action. Experiment with small steps, learn from results, and adjust course.

You go through these steps on a daily or weekly basis depending on what Target Condition you set. We found it important to timebox our action to instigate a checkpoint so we could quickly review if our action was heading in the right direction.

By adopting this way of working and regularly showcasing what we were doing to our stakeholders, we created a more sustainable and successful team environment for improvement. Why does this work?

  • Focus. By concentrating on one challenge, teams avoid spreading themselves too thin.
  • Learning. The iterative process fosters a culture of experimentation and continuous learning.
  • Measurable progress. Regular reviews and adjustments ensure steady improvement.
  • Empowerment Teams take ownership of their improvement journey.

The last point is probably the most important.

Celebrate successes. You need to recognise even the smallest improvements to motivate the team.

If you want to create a culture of continuous improvement, boost team morale, and deliver better outcomes for your customers, Improvement Katas are worth a go.