Breathe Easy – Improvement Can Occur Without Events by Sean Sessions
“Sometimes the best kaizen is no kaizen at all.” - Jon Miller, Kaizen Institute Well, maybe only sometimes. Reflecting on a recent Rapid Improvement Model (RIM) approach, I had my first...
View ArticleAn adaptive system
Change is inevitable. You hear people say that it’s the “new normal”. Although the statement may be cliché what it true is that we are all a part of a world where the way we live and work and relate is...
View ArticleUrgent Edutainment – by Rachelle Hunt
So grab the sphere of life and aim it and you’ll be guided by Edutainment! -KRS One I first heard about educating through entertainment, or edutainment, through song. Hip hop pioneer KRS One taught me...
View ArticleStately Partners – by Rachelle Hunt
If there is one type of work that gets a worse rap for waste than healthcare, it might just be government. Washington State knows this and is engaging in a Lean transformation to help bring about...
View ArticleReason for Hope by Diane Schairer
Last week I was inspired by participants at the Washington State Government Lean Transformation Conference. More than 2000 government managers flooded in to learn how to engage teams in removing waste...
View ArticleAdopt or Adapt
One of the great challenges an organization faces is how to “spread” standard work from one site/team to another. Through solid leadership, frontline engagement and a capable improvement process an...
View ArticleWhat do Scallops, Toilet Paper, and 50 Year Old Scotch have in Common? By...
As adult learners, we have further to go than our younger counterparts who don’t already have information pathways worn in. When learning new information, it’s helpful to assimilate old information...
View ArticleRapid Improvement Model (RIM): Dermatology – Connecting Head, Heart, and...
‘I was feeling burnt out. I work three 10 hour shifts, and routinely stay two plus hours after my last patients working on charts, and end up working on my days off to finish my work. I’d been thinking...
View ArticleA Lean Christmas by Rachelle Hunt & Al Fine, MD
In the spirit of “edutainment,” and needing a little cheer in this often sad world, I am so excited to share this epic poem with you. It comes courtesy of Al Fine, MD, a board certified internal...
View ArticleOn the Importance of Being Authentic by Rachelle Hunt
“Authentic behavior with a client means you put into words what you are experiencing with the client as you work.” -Peter Block, Flawless Consulting* As an internal Lean healthcare consultant, I don’t...
View Article“Breaking the Shell” by Diane Schairer
Last year, I visited and was inspired by organizations with a relentless, company-wide focus on continuous improvement. Herman Miller leaders reach financial targets by engaging staff in improvement,...
View ArticleKaizen Facilitation: is what you don’t do more important than what you do?
As you facilitate lean improvement events, I hope the distillation from a few recent experiences below benefit you as they have me 1) Other than shaping the skeleton of the event with leaders and...
View ArticleLessons Learned in Daily Management – by Marlan Crosier
Lee, Connor, and others have written before about our progress in implementing a daily management system (DMS) across our healthcare organization (for example, http://dailykaizen.org/2010/05/23/)....
View ArticleAt the Intersection of No Wait and No Harm – by Sean Sessions and Rachelle Hunt
Have you ever had to make a significant mental shift in order to see things in a new way? Our team is experimenting with a low-risk and fun process that helps us to observe and reflect with new eyes:...
View ArticleWhat Does Health Care Produce?
This week a department of our organization got together to begin to reimagine what they produce and then the process to deliver it – production preparation process (3P). However, before the 3P process...
View ArticleAt the Intersection of No Wait and No Harm – Part II by Sean Sessions
A few weeks ago we shared with you the new process our team is trying – to go out and observe something random, completely unrelated to healthcare, and try to think about what it would ideally look...
View ArticleChange versus Improvement by Sean S. Sessions
Have you ever struggled to show the difference between change and improvement in a non-threatening way to your clients? Through an exercise, unrelated to the products or services our clients deliver,...
View ArticleTaking Stairs Two at a Time by Jennifer Haury
SMACK! The other day, I was running late for a meeting and needed to climb 3 flights of stairs because I had no time for the elevator. Of course, I thought taking the stairs 2 at a time would be a...
View ArticleThe Art of Improvement
Process flows. Standard work combo sheets. Spaghetti diagrams. Material and information flows. Value stream maps. At the end of an improvement effort, we step back, crumple them up and toss them...
View ArticleThe Importance of Minding the Gap by Lori Heniff
“Mind the gap!” Travelers and commuters in London Underground tube stations regularly hear that warning to be cautious when crossing the gap between the station platform and the train itself. There...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....