Small barriers

I'm a tall guy, so when I shower I move the shower head all the way up along the adjustable rail just so I can stand under it without stooping. Of course, not handy for the rest of the family who can't even reach the shower head to lower it when they want to shower. So my wife was constantly reminding me to lower the shower head back when I'm done, and I of course was constantly forgetting. But then I figured it out. My wife was always reminding me after I had left the shower and already dried off, so adjusting the shower head then would mean getting wet again (from the shower head dripping), and it was this small, teeny "barrier" that was blocking me from actually learning/remembering to do it myself. On the boundary line between concious/subconcious I was making a decision that I just didn't want to do it.

Once I became concious of the barrier blocking me, it was easy to fix. Now I lower the shower head before I leave the shower and dry off, so the dripping is not a problem as I'm already wet anyway. Now I always never forget.

Trivial? Maybe. But I happened upon more examples once I realized how such small barriers can control your behaviour. Another personale example is the garbage container. I have to roll it out on monday evening for it to be emptied by the truck on tuesday morning. Meaning that tuesday evening I have to go back outside to roll the now empty container back. Something I never relished doing, especially in the winter, when it's cold, and you're nice and cozy inside.

In this case the barrier is more obvious, the cold outside. But the solution less so. Funnily enough, I just started jogging again (yes, not easy to keep up either) and when heading back it suddenly dawned on me that since I was outside anyway, I might as well drag the container back in. Trivial? Duh! But still it was now almost a pleasure to do the task, whereas before it was always a chore I "forgot" every now and then.

Small problems, and even smaller solutions, but the impact can be big. I've seen that with agile as well. Using a kanban board to make the work and flow (or lack thereof) visible is a great information radiator which encourages lively discussions right infront of the board. Nothing like a bunch of blocked tasks (impeditments or barriers) to start a discussion how we can improve the process. And the solutions are often small, trivial steps that in themselves cannot be the complete solution, or so it seems. But quite often, just making one tiny step is all it takes. All the subsequent improvement steps you thought were goign to be needed fall by the wayside because the problem is gone, the flow is back, and the process is working acceptably again. Too often people think up elaborate plans to tackle a semmingly big problem and then get stranded. Kanban I find encourages you to identify the first small step and then do it, and then see what next. Works much better.