Joe the Developer waltzed into work one sunny Tuesday morning and was approached by Kenny the Project Manager, who asked if the feature Joe was working on was done.

In Lean thinking, waste is anything that does not contribute to creating customer value. When I was recently asked to temporarily step into the ScrumMaster role for my team, I was able to see the power of the impediment process to eliminate waste.

If your retrospectives don’t get the juicy, “meaty” stuff out and into a tangible, prioritized list of the top actions for self-improvement or if a team seems to have its own “elephant in the room,” maybe it’s time to take a closer look at a retrospective…or two.

It’s right there in Tom Petty’s song: “Waiting is the hardest part.” But Tom got it wrong: *starting* is the hardest part.