Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria·Creators of Personal Kanban and Lean Coffee

Work made visible.
Decisions made human.

Most people are in more than one place at once. Find where you are.

Are you a practitioner, a team lead, or an executive? Probably all three.

Work with us directly →Find your path
Personal Kanban— The HowModus Institute— The WhatModus Cooperandi— The Why

Find your starting point

Three scales. One coherent practice.

Personal Kanban, Modus Institute, and Modus Cooperandi cover the same territory at individual, team, and organizational scale. Most people live in more than one. Start where the pain is.

Practitioners, individuals, knowledge workers

Is your own work overwhelming you?

Start with Personal Kanban →

“See your work. Limit your work. Everything else follows.”

Your work is invisible — spread across your head, your inbox, and a dozen half-finished projects. Personal Kanban gives you two rules and a board. You'll be surprised how much that's enough.

Personal Kanban
Team leads, PMs, Agile coaches, facilitators

Is your team struggling to coordinate?

Start with Modus Institute →

“When the team can see the work, the work gets done differently.”

Your team has too many meetings, too little visibility, and work that keeps falling through the cracks. Modus Institute is where visual management meets the realities of shared work.

Modus Institute
Leaders, executives, culture-shapers

Are you responsible for how your organization works?

Start with Modus Cooperandi →

“Visibility without surveillance. Leadership without interference.”

You're often the last to know what's actually happening. Not because people hide it — because the systems don't surface it. Modus Cooperandi is about the conditions that make great work possible.

Modus Cooperandi

The work

Start with the books.

Personal Kanban is the foundation. Everything else builds on it.

Personal Kanban
Personal Kanban
Mapping Work | Navigating Life
Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria

Personal KanbanMapping Work | Navigating Life

The book that started the movement. Visualize your work, limit your work-in-progress, and build a practice that actually fits your life.

Jim Benson & Tonianne DeMaria

Get it on Amazon →
Why Plans Fail

Cognitive Bias, Decision Making, and Your Business

Why do smart people make terrible decisions? The cognitive science behind organizational failure — and what to do about it.

View on Amazon →
Beyond Agility

Real agility is about organizational resilience, not frameworks. A guide for leaders who need more than a methodology.

View on Amazon →
The Collaboration Equation

How teams build flow, manage complexity, and get things done together — without the drama.

View on Amazon →

Courses & workshops

Learn at your own pace.

Entry point into the practice. Low cost. Real content from Jim and Toni — not a certification factory.

Online Courses — via Modus Institute

Courses hosted on LearnWorlds at modusinstitute.com

Live Workshops — Luma

Jim and Toni host free and paid workshops throughout the year — Lean Coffee sessions, board clinics, and live practice events. Free to join.

✓Lean Coffee facilitation sessions
✓Board clinics and Q&As
✓Practice meetups and workshops
✓Free and low-cost events
Browse the Modus calendar →

Direct access

Work with Jim and Toni directly.

Every session priced upfront. No discovery call. No proposal. Book directly.

Visible pricing on every session. You know what it costs before you book. Jim and Toni work directly with you — no account managers, no junior staff.
Tier 1

Diagnostic

$350–$450/ session

One hour, one session

A focused hour with Jim and Toni looking at a specific challenge. You get direct answers, not a proposal.

Board Review
$350

An hour with Jim and Toni looking at your actual board — what's working, what's stuck, and why. For individuals and teams.

Book directly →
Kanban Setup & Design
$350

Start your practice right. Jim and Toni help you design a board that fits your actual workflow — not a template.

Book directly →
Meeting Upgrade
$350

Redesign your meetings in an hour. Which ones matter, which to eliminate, and how to run the keepers better.

Book directly →
"Am I Doing This Right?"
$350

You've been doing this for a while. No agenda — just an hour with Jim and Toni reviewing your practice.

Book directly →
AI Workflow Check
$450

Map what AI and automation you're actually using against what's possible. No hype, no sales pitch.

Book directly →
Tier 2

Working Sessions

$1,500–$2,500/ session

Two 2-hour sessions (or more for Right Environment)

Structured working engagements that go beyond diagnosis into actual design, mapping, and building.

Value Stream Mapping Workshops
$1,500

Map the full flow of your work — where it moves, where it stalls, and where the real waste lives. Online, collaborative, results-oriented.

Book directly →
Obeya Design & Review
$2,000

Design or review your organization's big-room visual management system. For leaders who need visibility without surveillance.

Book directly →
Right Environment Exercise
$2,500

A deep-dive engagement to design the conditions your team needs to do their best work. Five 4-hour sessions + two 30-min follow-ups.

Book directly →
AI Process Mapping
$2,000

Map your existing processes and identify where AI integration makes sense — and where it doesn't.

Book directly →
User Journey Mapping
$1,500

Map the actual experience your customers or users have — from first contact to outcome. Find the gaps, fix the friction.

Book directly →
Visual Leader Standard Work & Exec Coaching
$2,500

Build the visibility habits that let you lead without firefighting. Structured around your actual role and responsibilities.

Book directly →
Tier 3

Embedded Advisory

$3,000–$5,000/ month

Ongoing monthly relationship

Jim and Toni as a persistent, accessible resource. Not a retainer for deliverables — a relationship for ongoing thinking.

  • ✓Recurring monthly sessions with Jim and Toni
  • ✓Async review of documents, boards, and decisions
  • ✓Private channel for between-session questions
  • ✓Priority booking across all session types
  • ✓Running context — they know your work
Book Embedded Advisory →

All sessions are online. Booking goes directly to cal.com/jim-benson. You pick the time. Payment is collected at booking.

Stay connected

Free ways into the practice.

Not ready to book? Start with the Substack. Jim writes weekly essays on work, flow, and being human while getting things done.

Substack

Humane Work

5,000+ subscribers. Weekly essays on work, flow, and organizational psychology. Jim’s personal voice, unfiltered.

Free to subscribe

Subscribe to Humane Work →
Blogs

Three sites, one practice

New articles published weekly across all three sites — practitioner how-tos, team applications, and leadership essays. Free to read.

Events & Social

Live events, free workshops

Jim and Toni host free Lean Coffee sessions, board clinics, and community events. No registration required for most.

Browse upcoming events →