Add a 'Stuck' Category to Your Improvement Board

What is a Add a 'Stuck' Category to Your Improvement Board?

Why it works

A Stuck lane turns a private blocker into shared, reusable knowledge the whole team can act on.

• Surfaces a stalled improvement so others can offer a proven fix instead of the owner waiting alone.
• Prevents good improvements from quietly dying, protecting the value already invested in them.
• Gives the team a fixed daily starting point, so help is pulled to blockers without guesswork.
• Reinforces that an improvement is not done until shared, keeping learning visible across the board.

How to create this idea

1. 1
   Add a Stuck lane

   Create a dedicated 'Stuck' category on your improvement board next to In Progress and Complete.

2. 2
   Define when to use it

   Tell the team to move any improvement that is blocked or waiting on help into Stuck rather than leaving it in progress.

3. 3
   Start the day at Stuck

   Open each standup by reviewing the Stuck lane so the team addresses blockers first.

4. 4
   Assign help and clear it

   For each stuck item, name who will help and what is needed, then move it back to In Progress once unblocked.

5. 5
   Close the loop by sharing

   Only mark an improvement Complete once it has been shared, so the fix becomes reusable knowledge.