A while back I wrote about THWADI - the small habit that creeps in and obstructs your day to day life without you even noticing.
Well, there’s more than just THWADI in the way.
Whenever we start working somewhere new, we see things with fresh eyes. The small frustrations that slow everyday work down and make life harder, often without anyone noticing they’re there.
Whenever we start working somewhere new, we see things with fresh eyes. We see the small frustrations that slow everyday work down and make life harder, often without anyone noticing they’re there. When you’re part of the team that has to wait six days for signoff, or go through three different companies to get the cleaner to add ‘cleaning the microwave’ to their tasks, you know how frustratingly inefficient it is on the inside.
We call these pebbles in your shoes. After a while we stop noticing them and just walk a little differently.
Lean is a simple way to start noticing them again.
What are Lean Wastes?
Waste is anything that takes time, effort or resources without adding value for the people we serve.
The waste idea comes from Lean, the way of working developed at Toyota in post-war Japan. Taiichi Ohno, one of its founders, named seven types of waste that were quietly slowing down the Toyota production line. An eighth, unused talent, was added later and has become just as important.
Shout out to Taiichi Ohno, whose work has inspired generations of teams (ours included!). We've turned his ideas into one of our favourite RAFTs (Rapid Agile Forecasting & Tracking techniques) and we use it well beyond the factory floor.
The eight wastes spell DOWNTIME, which makes them easier to remember:
Defects - work that has to be fixed or done again, like an application sent back because one tick box was missed.
Overproduction - doing more than is needed, or before it's needed, like a 20-page report when a one-page update would do.
Waiting - work sitting still while someone waits for an approval, materials or a system.
Non-utilised talent - skills, ideas and experience going unused, often because nobody asked.
Transport - moving work, information or things between people, teams or systems more often than needed.
Inventory - work piling up unfinished, like a full inbox or a queue of half-processed widgets.
Motion - unnecessary movement, like searching the floor for any more cups before putting the dishwasher on.
Extra processing - doing more than the outcome needs, like extra sign-offs, retyping the same information into systems that don’t talk to each other or producing reports nobody uses.
For government and public sector teams, value isn't about profit. It's the difference our work makes to the people we serve. The wastes are the same and so is the logic. Anything that gets in the way or adds value is worth a second look, and our Value Buckets: A Fast Way to Measure Value are a quick way to talk about what value means for your team.
Why We Love It
Lean wastes are a favourite because they help shift the conversation:
Giving everyone a shared language - once people can name a waste, they can talk about it without it sounding like a complaint.
Making the invisible visible - the workarounds we stopped noticing years ago suddenly show up.
Challenging old habits - naming the waste makes it easier to question "this is how we've always done it". My old friend THWADI lives here.
Focusing on the work, not the people - waste lives in how the work flows, not in anyone being lazy or careless.
Keeping change in the team's hands - most waste can be removed this week, without a business case or a project.
Freeing up time for what matters - every small fix gives a little time back to the people we serve.
Working for everyone - you don't need to be in IT or on an agile team to spot waste.
When We Use It
We reach for Lean wastes when we want people to feel they can change how the work gets done, not just do it. Spotting waste invites people to question the way things are, try new ideas and fix things without waiting to be asked. It's a good place to start when:
The team is busy, but things don't seem to move.
Someone's about to ask for more people, more money or a new system.
Retrospectives keep surfacing the same frustrations.
A new way of working needs to reach beyond a single project or team.
New people join and ask "why do we do it like this?"
Anyone says “that’s not ideal”!
Lean wastes work best on the small stuff. When the team spots waste that's too big to fix in a week or ideas need more time, tools or support, they’re a great fit for our Innovation Days: Creating Space to Experiment.
How We Do It
We usually explore Lean wastes in a short, hands-on workshop. It works just as well with one team as with a whole organisation in the same room.
Pick an area - we choose a part of the work where the team already feels the friction. If the work is hard to see, Story Mapping: Making Work Visible helps show how it really flows.
Brainstorm the frustrations - the team lists what slows them down or gets done twice, one sticky per niggle.
Name the waste - we use the waste cards to label each one. It's fine if one fits two wastes.
Ask who benefits - who would notice if it disappeared, and what difference would it make to them?
Design a small experiment - the team picks one change to try this week and agrees how they'll know it worked.
Share what we found - a few minutes of show and tell spreads the ideas and the energy.
The goal isn't a long list of waste. It's one small change the team actually makes.
Things to Look Out For
Don't argue about the label - plenty of frustrations fit two wastes. The name is there to start a conversation, not end one.
It's the system, not the people - waste is never about someone being lazy. Quality Debt slides into even the best designed processes. Most of it comes from good people working around a process that no longer fits. This matters most with unused talent, which can easily feel personal.
Some waste is a choice - a compliance check, a safety step or a quick workaround can be the right call. The trick is knowing why it's there. Decisions that made sense at the time can get a bit smelly, so we look at them with fresh eyes and clean out the rubbish.
Start small - big problems are tempting but slow. Pick one or two quick wins, and use Brutal Prioritisation: Finding the Real Musts if the team can't agree which.
Don’t just make a list - without an experiment, they’re just complaints.
Try It With Your Team
We recommend practising on something familiar before you try it at work. That way you'll focus on learning the Lean wastes, not defending your process.
A great example is the morning coffee run in the office kitchen. Waiting for the jug to boil, hunting for a clean mug, an empty milk bottle still sitting in the fridge. How many of the eight wastes can you spot?
Our kit includes eight Lean Waste cards, a practice scenario and the Pebble in Your Shoe worksheet to plan your first experiment.
Free Lean Waste cards coming soon.
Our RAFT Series
✦ Our CoLab RAFTs - Rapid Agile Forecasting & Tracking skills - are practical tools we use every day in our coaching and training to help teams make work visible and performance-focused.
Curious? Let’s talk toni@agilecolab.com
Version 1, last updated on 5 November 2026
