KLRIS

... stands for Kanban Leadership Retreat Iceland, which took place in the wonderful Icelandic summer 2011, luckily one not being impacted by any physical volcanic activity (even though I've learned that the people on Iceland love and repect but do not fear heir volcanoes the least.)

Replenishment

It was a gathering arranged by David Anderson to answer demand from the best trained and most well known Kanban coaches and practitioners around the world to discuss matters. The event was organized in the unformat of an unconference.

Famous German Kanban Authors ;)

If you couldn't make it, don't despair. Today David has published a free ebook, edited by Janice Linden-Reed, full of quotes covering several pillar topics of Kanban like Foundation, Transitioning, Visibility, Limited WIP, Measurement, Flow, etc. The end of the ebook also provides some longer contributions by Arne Roock, Al Shalloway and Jim Trott, Mhesh Sing, NIcholas Muldoon and also yours truly w/ 'Estimates are overrated' which you could already read here. The book contains a slightly revised version of the text thanks to some editorial work by Janice Linden Reed - thanks for the support! The text got so much better and clearer after review by Janice as a native speaker.

Thing area - birth of icelandic democracy

Please enjoy the ebook! Browsing through the ebook happily today, I was really amazed how good the experimental format of collecting quotes works. It really captures some key Kanban insights as well as some of the spirit in Rejkyavik (esp. for those who haven't been around).

Anarchy in Iceland?

There have been many insights for me in (on?) Iceland. There is one insight I had, which is rather on a quite meta level, that I want to share to reflect on the state of the community. And this one insight was not easy for me to digest in Rejkyavik itself but grew on me ever since.

close to ...

... bursting

Regarding culture, background and experiences we have been quite a diverse crew gathering in that hotel. To me that was quite a challenge at times. You can not imagine how complex it was in some of the sessions to nail down the topic that actually seemed to be so clear to me in the beginning. Just take a topic like ’Portfolio Management’. Already having contributed a chapter to the German translation of David's book, I was sure to have a grip on the topic. But after only some minutes I was shocked by the wealth of different contexts in which Portfolio Management may take place beyond what I experienced until then. There was quite some time of cognitive dissonance and dizziness in some of the sessions for me, summing up the whole picture of all participants. What is now left for me as the basic impression and insight is the openness of the leading Kanban Crew and most of all the openness to not only try to verify the Kanban model but to also look out for falsification.

Famous German Kanban Author before nearly drowning in Gullvattn

In short, I love the community, I loved the retreat and I really loved Iceland.Thanks a lot to David and his whole team for making it happen!


Go on and don't hesitate to download the ebook, read, enjoy and capture some of the spirit of those great summer days on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It's a gift :)


Thanks for your attention,


Markus

Me, stoked by Ielandic nature