“All of this standard work is just turning us into robots”.
Have you heard this before when you improved a process and made standard work? A recent workshop team was concerned this would be the response from some of their peers. In true sensei fashion, we asked the rest of the team how they would respond to their nursing peers. Here are some of their responses:
- We watched the current process across the hospital and it was different everywhere. The standard will help our float nurses be sucessful since they work across many units.
- The data we have shows not every nurse has been completing the process in the allotted 30 minutes which is causing overtime. The standard was designed to ensure we don’t go past 30 minutes but still get everything done.
- The nurses we spoke to said they can get too much or too little information at handoff depending on who they are partnering with. The standard work will be less frustrating for those in this position because we will all get consistent information from now on.
I really like these responses because they discuss the problem with data and observations. They do not just explain the benefits of the change but clearly explain the current situation which led to the standardization.
What would your response be to a comment like this?
My 2009 Hansei: Scarcity inspires creativity and innovation. How can I help harness that inspiration?
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