From Process to Flow: What Kanban Taught Us About Managing Work in Complex Systems

Co-Author: Agnieszka Cieślawska-Professional ProKanban Trainer & Consultant

Beyond Process – Why Structure Alone Isn’t Enough

In government and large organizations, process is king. Checklists, approvals, and defined steps keep systems running. But over time, those same structures can become rigid — masking where work actually gets stuck.

When we began exploring Kanban, we weren’t trying to replace process. We wanted to understand how work truly flowed from request to delivery, and what that flow could teach us about improving service.

“In most organizations, work moves — but not always in a way that’s visible, predictable, or fair,” explains Agnieszka Cieślawska. “Kanban helps us see what’s happening beneath the surface, and flow metrics stimulate the right conversations early.”

Agnieszka Cieślawska illustrating flow and WIP limits on a Kanban board during the training session.

Seeing the Work: Visibility Changes Everything

The first step was simple: make work visible. Mapping activities onto a Kanban board — planned, in progress, blocked, or done — immediately exposed bottlenecks we had long accepted as “normal”:

• Tasks stalled waiting for approvals

• Equipment deliveries delayed by dependencies

• Engineers pulled in multiple directions by competing priorities

Once the work became visible, the conversations shifted. Issues were easier to discuss, not defensively, but constructively.

Kanban doesn’t ask you to start over. Its implementation is highly iterative — you begin by understanding your current workflow, then evolve it gradually before focusing on optimization.

The Power of Small Batches

One of the most surprising lessons was the impact of limiting Work-In-Progress (WIP). In public service, multitasking can feel like the only way to cope. So limiting active work seemed counterintuitive at first.

But instead of slowing us down, WIP limits increased predictability. We began finishing more — with fewer interruptions — because we weren’t spreading our attention too thin.

“When teams limit work in progress, they shift from starting everything at once to actually finishing the work. This improves not only outputs but team motivation — and it enables early feedback from clients.”

From Guesswork to Data-Driven Delivery

Before Kanban, delivery estimates often relied on assumptions. Kanban introduced a more grounded approach using:

• Service Level Expectations (SLEs)

• Work Item Age (WIA)

• Cycle time instead of guess-based predictions

We started tracking how long tasks really took, and how long active work had been open — especially items trending toward delay.

This changed the conversation from “When will it be done?” to the more important question: “What does our data tell us?”

This mindset aligned perfectly with DICT’s culture of using evidence to drive accountability — not pressure.

Flow Is Everyone’s Responsibility

One of the biggest realizations was that flow isn’t an individual achievement — it’s a team outcome.

When work is visual and policies are explicit, blame disappears.

Instead of asking: “Why is your task delayed?”

Teams begin asking: “Why does this type of work take longer?”

“When you manage flow instead of people,” Agnieszka adds, “teams gain shared responsibility and real improvement. By focusing on how work moves, using metrics to understand the system, and adapting collaboratively, they foster predictability, early feedback, and a shift from blame to learning.”

Continuous Improvement, One Experiment at a Time

Kanban isn’t about dramatic transformation. It’s about evolutionary change — introducing one improvement at a time, measuring impact, and building on what works.

This resonated deeply with how DICT already operates. Every project — from network upgrades to training programmes — benefits from small, iterative changes that improve quality and transparency.

The biggest shift wasn’t technical. It was cultural: moving from process compliance to purpose-driven improvement.

When Mind-Sets Begin to Shift

What stood out most during the training wasn’t just the concepts — it was the openness in the room. Directors, engineers, and managers reflected on their own workflows, questioned long-standing habits of multitasking, and began imagining what could change.

“This training made me rethink how we deliver services. Simple practices like limiting WIP or monitoring work item age don’t just improve efficiency — they change the way teams collaborate. When we focus on flow instead of tasks, we create space for learning, better decisions, and a more empowered culture.” — Rosalind Denys

That sense of shared discovery — recognizing that change can begin within the team — captured the spirit of Kanban’s strategy: define and visualize your workflow, manage the items actively, and improve continuously.

From Process to Purpose

We began this Kanban journey expecting to learn a tool. What we discovered was a new way of thinking — one that values visibility, data, and collaboration over assumptions and control.

For organizations like ours, where services span departments, schools, and national projects, Kanban offers more than structure.

It offers clarity.

Because when we stop managing just the process and start managing the flow, we make room for what truly matters: purposeful, efficient, and human-centered service delivery.