Project Multi-Tasking!
Workshop Duration: 20 minutes
Purpose:
This lesson has substantial implications at all levels from individual task management to project portfolio
management. In summary, the human brain does not multitask. Focusing on a single job at a time yields
better quality, faster delivery, happier customers and less wasted time. This factor becomes vastly more
critical when dealing with teams of people.
Instructions:
Round One (“The Shout”) Instructions
• Choose 6 volunteers from the class; 1 will be the worker; 1 will be the timer and everyone else will be
a Customer
• Note the Goal: the Customer whose name is written first “wins”
• The timer should time how long it takes the Worker to write down each of the names.
• Begin the exercise: All Customers begin shouting their names (4-5 letter name of choice) at the
Worker, who starts writing them down, one per line
• The exercise ends when all names have been recorded. Note the best and worst times.
Round One Debrief
• Note the chaos that likely resulted. This closely parallels the way prioritization works at many
Companies (e.g. the squeakiest wheel gets the grease).
• Ask the Worker how they felt. They probably were stressed, distracted and frustrated.
• Write the best and worst completion times somewhere visible. We’ll compare these results to those
in succeeding rounds.
Round Two (“Everyone’s Happy?”) Instructions
• The Worker, Customers and Goal remain the same.
• The Worker will write each person’s name one letter at a time in a round robin fashion. Example: If
Anna, Bill and Joey are on the team, the Worker would write “A” on one sheet of paper, then “B” on
another, and “J” on the last. Then they would revisit those sheets to write “n,” “I” and “o” (the
second letters in each name), continuing until all names are complete.
• The timer will again time how long it takes the Worker to write their names.
Round Two Debrief
• Note how things were now orderly, but very inefficient, and ask why. Several forms of waste are
occurring here, but most notably context and task switching. There is also motion waste (moving
from
one card to the next), transportation waste (moving the cards themselves), and waiting (the time
between actual writing), all of which impact throughput of completed work.
• Ask Customers how they felt. By servicing all customers at once, we serve none of them well.
Compare this round’s times to the last.
• Ask Workers how they felt. This round was likely frustrating in a different way; while the process was
orderly, a sense of true closure and productivity was likely missing. A great deal of working was
happening, but little work was getting done.
Round Three (“Focus”) Instructions
• The Worker, Customers and Goal remain the same.
• The Worker chooses the order of Customers to service
• The Worker writes each Customer’s name in its entirety before moving on to the next.
Round Three Debrief
• Ask Customers how they felt. How was this time different from the previous rounds? Was the
capacity
clearer? Did you feel a need to fight for the top spot? Compare the results; they should be at least
twice as quick as the previous rounds, and possibly several times.
• Ask Workers how they felt. This approach is by far the best controlled, least stressful and easiest to
manage.
• Could this work even better? One thing we could do to make this more “agile” is prioritization by
value, which could start a conversation about Product Owners, if desired.