The objective of Mechanism 3 is to integrate continuous improvement practices into daily guideline development work. Continuous improvement is integrated into daily work when experimentation and intentional learning is an explicit and implicit expectation among the guideline development team(s) and all levels of organizational leadership. By creating a culture of learning and experimentation, flow of the guideline development process can be continuously improved.
Establish a culture of continual learning and experimentation
Below are descriptions of the components of this mechanism.
3.1 Facilitate organizational learning
Framing Question: Does intentional learning happen across the organization, or only among the most motivated team members?
Learning is an integral component of continuous improvement practices; learning at the organizational level is necessary to facilitate continuous improvement efforts. Learning occurs when problems are identified; however, organizational leadership, at all levels, must be supportive of intentional learning efforts, leading by example and participating in such efforts. Facilitating intentional learning across the entire organization is necessary to optimize the quality, reliability and flow of the development process.
3.2 Prioritize improving daily work in the development process
Framing Question: Do teams have the capacity to experiment and make improvements to their daily work?
Continuous improvements in the flow of the development process occurs via improvements made to how daily work is performed. However, teams can only identify and test new ideas to improve their daily work practices if they have capacity to do so. Without dedicated capacity for this work, intentional learning efforts will eventually be abandoned in favor of prioritizing ongoing work, and improvements to the development process will be stalled. Therefore, prioritizing improvements to daily work practices is necessary to optimize the flow of work through the development process.
3.3 Convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge
Framing Question: When team members learn new things, how is that knowledge captured and shared with the team?
When learning occurs, such as testing improvements to daily work practices or discovering viable solutions to problems, the knowledge that is gained must be properly documented to improve quality, reliability, and flow of the development process. Learning that remains tacit and is not shared among the team cannot be operationalized by the team, and therefore does not improve the development process. Once a problem has been solved or an improvement practice has been tested, teams should document the solutions and practices to ensure that future occurrences of similar problems can be resolved even faster and flow can be maintained. Making knowledge explicit, by properly documenting it in a shared location, is necessary to optimize the flow of work through the development process.
3.4 Continuously improve the Mechanisms
Framing Question: Is the team continuously striving for improvements to their daily work, or have they settled for “good enough?"
Continuously making efforts to improve the development process helps ensure that quality, reliability and flow are, at minimum, maintained. Failing to make continuous improvement efforts increases the likelihood that the development process succumbs to entropy, the natural movement of systems towards disorder, and quality, reliability and/or flow are diminished. A culture of intentional learning and experimentation facilitates continuous improvement of daily work, allowing teams to make continuous improvements to quality, reliability, and flow.
3.5 Reinforce a learning culture at all levels of leadership
Framing Question: Do the organization’s leadership encourage intentional learning and experimentation with their words as well as their behaviors?
Organizational culture must be aligned with the goals of continuous improvement through learning and experimentation to facilitate optimizing quality, reliability, and flow.
However, intentional learning through experimentation necessitates accepting the risk of occasional failure; leadership at all levels must thoughtfully manage these risks such that teams are allowed to fail in a safe manner. Organizational leadership must lead the push for creating capacity for intentional learning and experimentation, and create a culture that embraces safe risk-taking. Establishing and maintaining an organizational culture of continuous learning is essential to the Agile Framework; without it, organizations will be unable to establish the Mechanisms and Components in a meaningful way.
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