Twee weken geleden waren we met een groep Nederlandse zorginstellingen op de Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. Ik zal een andere keer meer schrijven over wat we geleerd hebben in die weekop de summit en bij diverse bezoeken. Hieronder echter alvast een 'takeayway' van Mike Stoecklein, een van de Amerikaanse deelnemers. Klik hier voor zijn originele blogpost. Het boek wat hij als eerste noemt heb ik inmiddels de eerste twee hoofdstukken van gelezen en dat was inderdaad een goede start. Tot zover een aanrader dus.
Best Conference Ever! – Till Next Year (2015 Edition)
There were lots of great things about the Summit. Most of the key take-aways were hit by Jim Womack in his closing keynote presentation which he titled “Moving On With Mended Management.” I’ll try to summarize with a “top 10″ list:
10. The title is based on John Toussaint’s latest book Management On The Mend, which was given to summit attendees. Jim advised everyone to take Friday off, read the book on the flight home (it works below 10,000 feet), and form a plan on Monday. This book contains ammunition for deniers, resisters and anchor draggers.
9. Jim described his efforts to find a doctor for his own healthcare needs (RFP for Jim’s eye). One physician wanted to schedule the appointment and procedure at his (physician’s) convenience. When Jim asked the 2nd physician about his outcome data, the physician said that he didn’t need it (or have it?) He boasted that he was a “Harvard-trained” doctor. “So am I!” claimed Jim (where he got his Ph.D.) Dr. #3 was apparently the one who invented the procedure that Jim needed, but he did that 40 years ago and is now over 80 years old. Jim pointed out that it was easier to get data to help his daughter buy a used car than it was for him to get data to choose physician.
8. “You can treat a patient with drugs”, Jim said, “but drugs don’t get at the root cause.” Jim admitted that he has been a “drug-pusher” in the lean world. He told people they needed to do kaizens, then more kaizens, then more. All these tools (add in A3, 5S and others) won’t do it. What IS needed is a behavior change in management. (But prescribing drugs is easier, so we tend to do that.)
7. Jim shared a useful resource to deal with the “anchor draggers” who say that lean thinking won’t work in healthcare. Planet-Lean.com has some useful information for everyone, whether the application is healthcare or any other application.
6, As far as what is yet to be done in healthcare, Jim reminded us that the “authority of lean is your experimental findings.” So, we need to keep experimenting. There needs to be more experiments with the payers of healthcare.
5. We need more yokoten, which is more than “spread.” You can spread anything, like fertilizer or bad ideas. The people trying to spread need to understand what they are doing. You can’t spread something you don’t understand. Jim also advised against “industrial tourism.” A visit for an hour or a day won’t do it and actually produces more harm. Yokoten requires adaptation (one-size-fits-all only works with socks).
4. Modern management (Jim called it Sloan management) will continue to produce more MBAs who will produce more KPIs and this will only produce the “triple M” (more meaningless measures). This will only delay progress and actually works against our efforts. When bonuses are tied to results, people will find a way to get the numbers.
3. Jim talked about addressing a group of graduating physicians at Harvard Medical School. He asked them, “what have you learned?” One graduate said, “I learned how to become a workaround genius.” That’s the current state. Our system of education produces skills for workarounds.
2. Regarding a question about what to do with senior managers who don’t understand or are resistant, Jim pointed out that their behavior may be due to not understanding or due to fear. People in management (nobody really) wants to look foolish.
1. Jim’s final thought for the 600+ who were convened for the Summit was this – “You don’t need luck. But you do need perseverance.”
