Jim Benson > Quotes

“To-do lists: the last bastion for the organizationally damned. They’re the embodiment of evil. They possess us and torment us, controlling what we do, highlighting what we haven’t. They make us feel inadequate, and dismiss our achievements as if they were waste. These insomnia-producing, check-boxing Beelzebubs have intimidated us for too long.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“In this context, “focus” doesn’t mean locking our office door, selecting a task to process, and tuning out the world around us until that task is complete. That kind of self-exile is a productivity (fear) reaction—not a kaizen (growth) reaction—to a stressful workload.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“When you master the art of the retrospective, you are honing in on kaizen.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Japanese industrialist and founder of Toyota Industries Sakichi Toyoda understood that problems often have nested causes. He wanted people to get past their preconceptions and “with a blank mind” get to the heart of the issue.7 He didn’t ask Why? once, or even twice. Repeat ‘why’ five times to every matter, he instructed, until you arrive at something with real context.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Real-time flexiblity beats rigid up-front planning.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions. ~ Buddhist Saying”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Regular retrospectives enable us to identify and act on opportunities for positive change. Whether we hold them on our own, with our families, or with our team at work, retrospectives are an essential tool for reflection.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“     May you have the hindsight to know where you’ve been, the foresight to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you have gone too far. ~ Irish Saying”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Professional life. Personal life. Social life. They are often treated as separate entities, but our lives and insights cannot be segregated. Work / life balance is a false dichotomy; compartmentalization is not sustainable. It forces life’s professional, personal, and social elements to vie for attention, bringing with them seemingly competing expectations and goals. When we compartmentalize our lives, these elements become pathological, pushing us from one task to the next in an effort to satisfy their own jealous needs.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Much of this waste reduction comes from Lean’s goal of a “kaizen” culture. Kaizen is a state of continuous improvement where people naturally look for ways to improve poorly performing practices.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“In the beginning, it’s advisable to focus on the flow of your work and the idea that your work actually has a “shape.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“cannot make informed decisions or create a quality product without first understanding why we are doing what we are doing. Lack of context creates waste,”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“     You can observe a lot by just watching. ~ Yogi Berra”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Hofstadter’s Law Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.”
― Jim Benson, Why Plans Fail: Cognitive Bias & Decision Making

“     Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. ~Philip K. Dick”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“We focus so intently on task completion that we lose sight of the work we’re engaged in.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“We’re all guilty of this, squandering our precious time merely trying to get by. We sequester joy for our evenings and weekends, scheduling time when we allow ourselves to live, rather than living all the time.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“As the freeway approaches 100% capacity, it ceases being a freeway. It becomes a parking lot.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Capacity: How much stuff will fit Throughput: How much stuff will flow They are not synonymous.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions
~ Dalai Lama”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“We focus so intently on task completion that we lose sight of the work we’re engaged in. We can’t see our options, our history, or our opportunities for collaboration. In the long run, working like this isn’t only counter-productive, it’s anti-productive.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Let me do and I understand. ~Confucius The”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Reliance on heroes undermines daily operations.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“increasing work linearly increases the likelihood of failure exponentially.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Work we have yet to complete, or any aspect of our life that distracts us, creates existential overhead. As existential overhead mounts, our effectiveness diminishes. Visualizing work reduces the distractions of existential overhead by transforming fuzzy concepts into tangible objects that your brain can easily grasp and prioritize.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Capacity: How much stuff will fit Throughput: How much stuff will flow They are not synonymous. All”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Doing things you don’t enjoy reduces your effectiveness.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“the freeway approaches 100% capacity, it ceases being a freeway. It becomes a parking”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“Educated guesswork is no substitute for thoughtful observation.”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life

“We shouldn’t view our work as a series of isolated events. Static. Unique. Only vaguely related. The fact is, those presumably isolated events combine to build the story of our lives. A”
― Jim Benson, Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life