“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on-it’s going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Croft M. Pentz
Change management can sometimes drain your strength. I hope this helps you press forth when times seem tough.
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
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Entries from March 2009
March 30, 2009
Courage Quote
March 27, 2009
Connect Actions To Cost
Costs are out of control because the use of time, resources, and supplies are not always directly linked to money.
I just worked on an improvement workshop where one of the targets was to reduce cost in after-clinic dictations. Until we discovered the rate per line associated with dictations, providers did not consider there was a meter [...]
March 25, 2009
Create Improvement Capacity
You will never succeed at Lean unless you create improvement capacity in the front lines. Lee Fried recently wrote a great article about Creating Time for Local Improvement that explores this. I want to add some of my thoughts as well.
My hospital began Lean and Value Stream work based on creating capacity for growth. Our [...]
March 23, 2009
Why Don’t Old Processes Die?
Have you ever improved a process and were suprised that workers end up doing BOTH the new way and the old way?
I have seen data that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a new process has removed frustrating waste and increases value for the customer, but still the old way persists.
I recently talked with a friend who’s business was acquired [...]
March 19, 2009
Slideshare: Learning from the Toyota way
I really enjoy seeing how others teach or have learned about the Toyota Production System and Lean. This slideshare from whatidiscover is a nice summation of the basic concepts ( *RSS readers will have to open this post to be able to view the presentation*). I haven’t seen the great Taiichi Ohno quote on [...]
March 17, 2009
An Irish Blessing
“May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.”
Happy [...]
March 16, 2009
Beware Of Integrity Loss
Many organizations are facing difficult times due to the financial crisis. It is an easy temptation to get things out rather than get things right when the pressure is strong. The integrity of your Lean journey may be lost if your approach changes drastically.
There are two basic philosophical ways to implement Lean in your enterprise: Coaching [...]
March 10, 2009
The Cult of Done Manifesto and Lean
I discovered the interesting The Cult of Done Manifesto via Dan Pink’s blog. I saw some things in this Pettis/Stark lifehack that made me think of how they can apply to Lean. Check out the link to see the great visuals created for it.
The original text is in black and my comments are in (blue parentheses).
There [...]
March 9, 2009
Visual Thinking Tips – Basic Drawing, Nodes, and Storytelling
An Introduction to Visual Thinking slideshare by Ryan Coleman offers great tips for communicating visually (RSS Readers will need to open post to view presentation). It shows how to identify and label nodes in your drawing to make simple pictures more meaningful. It also shows another visual way of explaining things using just shapes [...]
March 6, 2009
Don’t Be A Firefighter
Like all kids, I used to want to be a firefighter when I grew up. The above picture is me in the 70’s all ready to take out an inferno. People may not be public-service firefighters, but we sure douse flames a lot in hospitals.
We need to change our mentality about fighting fires to focusing [...]
March 4, 2009
One Is Never Enough
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
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March 3, 2009
Execs Need To Stop Solving Problems
Executives and managers are bottle-necking Lean growth when they solve problems.
They claim they do not have time to go to Gemba to gain a deep understanding of the problem because they are too busy in problem solving meetings (don’t fool yourself – even decision-making meetings are still about problems). Leadership indirectly demonstrates lack of respect [...]
