Push vs. Pull Systems

One of the more interesting comparisons of a pull vs. push system.

Say I-ask you “what will you get done today David?” And without prioritizing those things, you say X,Y,Z. Now you start all those things at once, and there are dependencies, and distractions, and you need self-care, and oh a global pandemic.

Now we are left with three things in progress. But you are gunning to get them all done, so you burn out / flare out getting them to-me at 11:59PM. But fall-asleep for three days.

That is a push system. It is more starting than finishing. And no WIP limits.

But say that I give you a WIP limit of one, and you prioritize X, Y, and Z. You starton X and get blocked. But it is top priority, so I come and help you. And you get that thing done by 2PM. And you aren’t in 5 meetings all day discussing Y and Z pre-emptively. And you aren’t doing status checks on X-Z all the time. So the next thing is done by 6PM. I am already baking the cake with the flour you delivered at 2PM. And at 6PM I start making the prawns. And we have a nice dinner.