Lean Blog Audio: Practical Lean Thinking, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

Lean sometimes gets, I think, an unfair rap that it's only a method for incremental improvement. See this article, from the NEJM website, for example: "Limits of Lean -- Transformative Care Redesign Must Go Beyond Typical Lean-Based Improvements."

http://www.leanblog.org/audio177

http://www.leanblog.org/audio176

I saw this article a few days ago in one of the larger healthcare industry trade publications:How One Woman Saved IU Health $54 Million

The headline is misleading, as addressed in the opening sentence / sub-headline of the story (via HealthLeaders):

"With a little help from about 10,000 of her friends and colleagues, the head of Indiana University Health's office of transformation leanedin to cut waste and encourage value, one project at a time."

That's more like it and more likely... Lean is a team effort that, ideally, engages everybody... so it's not surprising to hear about 10,000 participants and the need to share that credit.

Like almost every health system, IU Health faced financial pressures. I'll give their board credit for pushing for a method other than traditional layoff-based "cost cutting."

"IU Health had already tried some performance improvement projects, but they were scattershot and not based on a unified philosophy. In order to improve results and scalethe improvement process, the board challenged then-CEO Dan Evans to deploy a system-wide value-improvement tool that could enlist all employees."

When I talk to organizations about Kaizen, or continuous improvement, there's far too much self-defeating talk, where people say things like:"We're not going to try this Kaizen process because our culture isn't ready yet."

That's not only self-defeating, it's self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't work on continuous improvement, you'll never have a culture of continuous improvement.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio175

Yesterday, the W. Edwards Deming Institute published the second in my series of three posts for them: "The Failure of "The Livonia Philosophy" at my GM Plant." Read more...

http://www.leanblog.org/audio174

In my travels, I often meet people or visit organizations that say something like:"We're doing Lean... we just call it Process Improvement."

They have a "Process Improvement" (PI) department, or they call it "Continuous Process Improvement" (CPI). They have people in roles like "Process Improvement Facilitators."

While process improvement is great, in using a term like that,there's perhaps a risk that they miss the full and complete essence of Lean and, therefore, don't get the results that they might hope for.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio172

StoreSMART is partnering with me on this contest where you can win one of four sets of books, along with a selection of sample supplies that can help you with 5S, visual management, and other Lean methods.By January 31, 2017, we'll select four winners who will each get a set that includes:

Lean Hospitals, 3rd Edition (signed by Mark Graban)

Work That Makes Sense (signed by Gwendolyn Galsworth)

The Batz Guide for Bedside Advocacy (a great patient safety guidebook)

One winner's package will includethe book Visual Workplace Visual Thinking instead of Work That Makes Sense.

It's a weight loss program called "Lean 13." It's the everyday use of the word "lean," as in thinner, that has nothing to do with the Lean methodology and the Toyota Production System. They're promising that you'll lose 13 pounds in the first month.As with the Lean methodology, in hospitals, factories, or wherever, your results might vary based on a number of factors. For example, Nutrisystem can't stop a customer from supplementing their food with Buffalo wings and chocolate milkshakes.

We have situations out there where people say, "We tried Lean and it didn't work." Maybe it was because they were cherry picking a few Lean tools or they just thought Lean was about cost cutting, instead of focusing on safety, quality, patient flow, and employee engagement.

My favorite book, as I've written about before, is not a "Lean book" -- it's Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler, PhD. It might look like a book about statistics...

http://www.leanblog.org/audio170

I'm extremely honored that The W. Edwards Deming Institute published my first blog post in a series of three that I've written for them, to be published over the next month or so.The post is titled:

"Why Dr. Deming's Work is So Important to Me"

http://www.leanblog.org/audio169

Before Christmas, I was listening to the Dan Le Batard Show and their guest for the day was former NFL player Domonique Foxworth, pictured at left. Foxworth earned an MBA from Harvard Business School after his playing days. He's the perfect participant in a smart show about sports and whatever.During one segment, they all talked about NFL offensive and defensive coordinators and how they often fail when promoted to a head coach position.... and the discussion seemed relevant to other types of organizations.

http://www.leanblog.org/audio168