Kanban seeks to reduce
multi-tasking and context switching. Here is a quick and easy exercise to experience the effect of
multi-tasking.
Have each participant divide
a page into 3 columns with headers as shown:
Start a timer and have each fill out the columns by hand, working from left to
right, one row at a time (one entry in left column, then 1 entry in center column, then 1 entry in right column, then 1 entry in left column...). Note that the middle column is Roman numerals. Stop the timer when finished. Note each person's time.
Now create the same table again on a blank
sheet. This time start the timer and fill out the columns vertically
(fill out the left column completely first, then the middle column, then the right
column). Stop the timer when finished. Compare the result with the times from the
first table. This is the effect of multi-tasking vs. focus.
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However, we wondered how much of our first passes (horizontal/context switching) was simply impacted by "learning" the game (remembering my Roman numerals). So we both repeated the horizontal/context switching a second time and found the time decreased significantly and was similar to our initial vertical/focus pass.
We then each repeated a third horizontal/context-switching pass as follows: one of us was the timer and the other the worker. The timer would press the start button on an online stopwatch and immediately call out a column (Left, Center, Right), and as the worker completed the entry in the called out column, the timer immediately called out another column (purely random order) making sure to also watch as the columns reached their limits so as to not call out a column once it was completed.
We felt this more closely represented the context-switching effect of not really knowing what might come up next when you have lots of work in progress. Both of our times increased significantly and were now again similar to our first horizontal/context-switching pass.
Try this modification and see what you experience.