Wasty the Snake

Does that sound familiar? and people mention that they have been interrupted a lot, had too many meetings, or had to wait for something. However, when you ask for more details, they can’t remember... It's time to welcome a new team member: Wasty the Snake.

Wasty the Snake is a visual tool used to identify and track waste in your team. It involves placing a physical or virtual snake on a board and adding post-it notes to the snake each time the team encounters waste. On each post-it, you describe what you did and found wasteful, and you indicate the time spent. The snake is then brought to retrospectives to help the team identify patterns and develop actions to reduce waste.

This simple exercise can help teams become more aware of the different types of waste they encounter and take proactive measures to mitigate waste, thereby enhancing efficiency and productivity.