Do I believe in the "pursue evolutionary change" principle advocated by people in Kanban? Well, it depends.

After 20+ years dealing with change, what I believe in is "change at the pace people and systems can tolerate". That simple.

If you can tolerate a substantial "revolutionary" change, then go for it. If what you can tolerate is change in small "evolutionary" steps, then that's the right call.

It all depends on whether your environment and the people working in it are Ready, Willing and Able to do change.

As a coach, mentor or consultant it is NOT my call to decide the type and pace of change people do. My contribution is to spot the moments when all those 3 factors converge and enable/guide whatever change people are Ready, Willing and Able to do.

So, hard-coding a preference (even an obligation) towards evolutionary change is ill-judged and will even act as a limiting belief.

Some of the best teams I have worked with achieved remarkable changes in very short time spans. Visualisation, bringing focus and balance to your workload, measuring the flow of work, introducing new ways of working, etc. can look radical when you look back at the changes people can achieve.

Sometimes, you'll be doing evolutionary change; Sometimes, you'll do something more significant.

It's all down to being Ready, Willing and Able.