Gotta Go Lean Blog
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Why Lean Can’t Be as Effective in Healthcare as in Other Industries
Lean has been making tremendous strides in healthcare. Like all industries, there are some nuances that demand special attention, but the basic tools and concepts work well. But there is one monumental barrier that disrupts the effectiveness of Lean in the medical field. So what’s the problem? Whenever I talk to someone in other industries about their operation, the conversation invariably includes discussion about customers and the value that is provided to them. In healthcare, Read more…
Lean Blog-Gotta Go Lean
Guess What. Tired People Make More Mistakes. (Surprised?)
It comes as no revelation to us that we make more mistakes when we are tired. Drive late at night, and you will undoubtedly notice that you’ve got a slower reaction time and that your mind wanders more. Think of the silly errors you make when it is late at night and you are dead tired. Ever find yourself squeezing out more shampoo right after you already washed your hair? Despite what the brilliant marketing Read more…
Lean Terms
Coaching
Coaching is the act of giving specific guidance to help a person make better decisions that will result in the individual getting closer to reaching his or her goals or accomplishing a specific task better. Generally speaking, coaching is very targeted, and usually comes as a result of a formally defined, hierarchical relationship. Coaching is an important leadership task. Without the ability to train team members to do their jobs more effectively, the opportunities for Read more…
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DVD Bundle Offers
A combination of training and hands-on experience builds the foundation for a great continuous improvement culture. You can get the first part of that mix right here. Whether you are investing in yourself or getting training materials to teach your team, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better option than Velaction’s recorded training on DVD. If the DVDs stood alone, they’d still be a great value. But our DVDs don’t have to stand alone. Read more…
Lean Forms and Continuous Improvement Tools
Policy Deployment Bowler
The Policy Deployment Bowler is used to track progress on the targets shown on a Policy Deployment Matrix. In policy deployment, 3 to 5 year strategies are turned into annual objectives. To meet those objectives, leaders establish improvement priorities, which generally require new processes. If the progression through policy deployment is done properly, accomplishing the improvement priorities will result in achieving the annual objectives. Get Our Policy Deployment Bowler for FREE Because improvement objectives are Read more…
Continuous Improvement Strategies
Your Ideas Don’t Seem To Get Used By Your Leaders
There are many things that affect job satisfaction, but a handful carry more weight than others. Trust in one’s boss and good relationships with coworkers are both important factors. The ability to have a say in how the job is done is another significant influencer of job satisfaction. When a person makes an attempt to improve a job and they feel if falls on deaf ears, a person tends to like their job less, and Read more…
Lean Blog-Gotta Go Lean
Checking Your Lean Progress (+Video)
A short while ago, Tim McMahon of the “A Lean Journey” blog and I hosted a webinar in which we talked about how to understand and evaluate the progress you are making as you reduce waste and increase value in your organization. (Note: the link above will take you to a discussion about the webinar that Tim has posted on his site.) We covered a variety of topics, including: Establishing “Big Picture” strategy and tracking Read more…
Lean Blog-Gotta Go Lean
Quatily Is Important
I just saw an interesting gaffe from the Romney campaign. I try to stay apolitical in my views, but there are some great learning points here. Basically, in this age of new technology, candidates are trying out many new ways of reaching voters. In this case, the Romney campaign used an iPhone app that overlays a slogan on a picture. Only one of the slogans had “America” spelled as “Amercia”. So, there is a big Read more…
Lean Terms
No-No’s of Lean Operations
Continuous improvement is as much about not going backward as it is about making progress. Knowing what to avoid is as important as knowing what to do. While many of the items on this list of No-No’s won’t derail your Lean efforts, they do act as speed bumps that slow down progress. Improvement resources are in short supply. Make sure they are not wasted on known obstacles. Many companies have outstanding results on individual Lean Read more…
Lean Terms
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), is a psychologist made famous by his “Hierarchy of Needs”. He proposes that people have a tiered structure of needs, and the most basic of these must be met prior to dedicating attention to more advanced, or higher-order needs. The hierarchy, from lowest to highest, includes: Physiological Needs: These are the core needs shared by all living things—food, water, reproduction, etc. Safety Needs: Safety has changed in its meaning over time. Most Read more…
Lean Terms
Leader’s Intent
The military has a term called “commander’s intent”. It is a part of every mission briefing in which the commander describes success and the purpose behind what he or she wants to achieve. Unfortunately though, in any combat operation, there is a chance that a unit will find itself without its leader. Whether a simple, temporary communications glitch, or a serious injury or death, there can be a sudden leadership vacuum. When the assumptions and Read more…