Looking at cycle time for an individual is a fundamental misunderstanding of how flow works in a system—unless the individual is the system. And here is why!
Kanban isn’t about individual productivity; it’s about optimising the flow of work through a system. When you measure an individual’s cycle time, you ignore the real bottlenecks—queues, dependencies, and wait times that slow everything down. A person might complete tasks quickly, but if those tasks get stuck waiting for reviews, approvals, or other handoffs, the overall system remains inefficient. If you want faster delivery, fix the system, not the people.
As Nigel Thurlow puts it: “You never measure a person, ever. You only ever measure a process. You improve the system, never the people within it. If you’re measuring an individual person to try and blame them, then you’re ignoring what’s wrong with the process that’s causing it.”
Measuring individual cycle time leads to bad incentives. If someone is judged on how fast they complete their own tasks, they’ll prioritise speed over impact. This can lead to:
Kanban is about improving the whole workflow. Look at Process Cycle Efficiency (PCE) and Throughput together—one improves the other.
A fast-moving individual doesn’t mean fast-moving work. If the system is overloaded with WIP, nothing gets delivered faster. Work often gets stuck in queues, waiting for handoffs, or blocked by dependencies. Measuring individual cycle time won’t tell you where the real problems are.
Instead, track:
Knowledge work isn’t assembly-line work. It requires handoffs, reviews, and collaboration. Measuring an individual’s cycle time isolates their part of the work but ignores the time it spends waiting on others. Worse, it discourages teamwork—if people are penalised for long cycle times, they’ll avoid collaborating because it slows them down.
Optimise for flow across the system, not just individual speed.
If people are measured by their personal cycle time, they may:
None of this improves system flow. It just distorts behaviour.
At the end of the day, the Kanban Method (as opposed to kanban) is designed to improve flow (basically Process Cycle Efficiency) by improving throughput (units per unit time) by removing constraints (which includes bottlenecks) in the system. Make the system more effective by making it more efficient. - Nigel Thurlow
If you want to improve flow, focus on:
Kanban is about improving the system, not monitoring individuals. Measuring individual cycle time distracts from real systemic inefficiencies and leads to bad behaviours. Instead, optimise for end-to-end flow and make sure work moves smoothly across the whole system.
As Thurlow emphasises: “If there are training or skill gaps, that’s a system problem, not a person problem. Someone failed the person by not providing the right training, support, or experience.” This reinforces why the focus should always be on fixing the system, not blaming individuals.
If you need help setting up meaningful Kanban metrics, let’s talk. We can identify the right measurements to improve your system without falling into the trap of individual cycle time metrics.
If you've made it this far, it's worth connecting with our principal consultant and coach, Martin Hinshelwood, for a 30-minute 'ask me anything' call.
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