It’s hard to limit your work in progress (WIP) when your boss count exceeds your WIP limit.

If you have a WIP limit of three and 12 bosses, you may as well have one card permanently in your personal kanban that says, “Negotiate with bosses.” That sounds funny, but it’s true. Your bosses will always require explanations about why you are working on tasks that are unrelated to their work.

I regularly play a game with people called Count the Bosses. The rules are simple: You count your bosses.

If you need more than a few fingers to count them, you know that part of your job is not only satisfying their demands, but also choosing which to be attentive to at any given point in time.

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