by Lee Fried, on 19 Sep 2006 07:52 am
The Journey
Back to Genie
Today I have the honor of bringing the Model Line leadership team to Genie Industries for a benchmarking tour. For the last two weeks we have been making preparations for the trip and the group is incredibly excited for the opportunity. As part of the preparation we had each of the leaders prepare a set of questions that they would like to answer during the trip. Reviewing these questions this morning it is evident that the team has come a long way. They are no longer skeptical that what is being done in manufacturing can be translated over to healthcare. They are no longer looking for justification on why they should embark on this journey, but are instead focused on gaining wisdom on how they can do it successfully. The questions are focused on how they must change their behavior and how people systems need to change. For example here are some of the questions that will be asked:
1. Can you describe the principal role of the front line manager? What different competencies did they need for the lean approach and how did you support their development?
2. What is your selection and orientation process for new associates? Specifically, how do you select and orient people who will be on board in a lean culture?
3. When and how were you able to transition from LEAN being a program that was supported by a critical group of leaders to one that is now considered simply the way that you do work?
I hope today will be a break through day and will further fuel the energy of the group moving forward.
on 20 Sep 2006 at 6:30 pm 1.Mark Graban said …
Funny, timing. Tomorrow, I am taking a hospital lab team that has been working on lean for two months up to Minneapolis to visit two hospitals that have been working on lean much longer. The team did a similar a process, brainstorming questions, many of them related to leadership and culture (and these are primarily front-line employees). It’s great to see the team move from “what is lean?” to understanding so much in such a short time. We’re far enough in our lab redesign that the team is not going to COPY the other hospitals — they just want to see a “more lean” operation in action so they can learn from it and apply it to their own lab.