How can you design value streams that align with your organization's strategy?

1 What is systems thinking?

Systems thinking is a way of thinking that focuses on the relationships and interactions between the elements of a system, rather than on the individual parts. Systems thinking helps you to see the big picture, identify root causes, and find leverage points for change. Systems thinking also helps you to avoid siloed thinking, which can lead to suboptimal outcomes and unintended consequences.

2 What is value stream mapping?

Value stream mapping is a tool that helps you to visualize and analyze the current and future states of your value streams. Value stream mapping helps you to identify the value-adding and non-value-adding activities, the sources of waste and inefficiency, and the opportunities for improvement and innovation. Value stream mapping also helps you to align your value streams with your customer needs and expectations, and to measure your value stream performance.

3 How to apply systems thinking to value stream design?

To apply systems thinking to value stream design, you need to define the purpose and scope of your value stream, identify the key stakeholders and their needs and expectations, map the current state of your value stream, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your value stream, design the future state of your value stream, and implement and monitor the future state. Specifically, you need to consider the value proposition you offer to customers and stakeholders, the boundaries and constraints of your value stream, the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of your value stream, sources of value, waste, and variation in your current state, changes and improvements in your future state design, assumptions and risks involved in your future state design, how to execute and communicate changes to your value stream, how to measure and evaluate results from your value stream, and how to learn and adapt from feedback.

4 How to align your value streams with your strategy?

In order to align your value streams with your strategy, you must first define your strategic vision and mission, objectives and measures, and initiatives and projects. Then, you can assess how your value streams contribute to your strategic initiatives and projects. Finally, you need to ensure that the governance and culture of your value streams are consistent with your strategy. To do this, you must foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement across all of your value streams. This will help you track and report progress, prioritize resources, and allocate capabilities.

5 How to benefit from value stream design?

By applying systems thinking and value stream mapping to design value streams that align with your strategy, you can benefit from increased customer and stakeholder value, improved operational efficiency and effectiveness, enhanced organizational agility and resilience, and greater strategic alignment and integration. You can deliver value that meets or exceeds customer needs and expectations, eliminate waste, reduce variation, optimize flow, increase quality and productivity, adapt to changes in the internal and external environment, seize opportunities and challenges in your value streams, align and integrate with your strategic vision, mission, objectives, measures, initiatives, and projects, and create a coherent organization.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?