DailyKaizen

There was a lot of interest in my last posting so I figured I would provide some more details on our Daily Management program and what we are trying to accomplish. The program consists of ten modules that we have developed internally, all customized for our healthcare and administrative settings, but primarily based on the TWI (Training Within Industries) program. For each module, all frontline managers will come to a two hour class and then return to their work setting to work through approximately 10 hours worth of homework. Each module builds on the last and they basically walk managers through the processes of identifying customer requirements, developing process measures, standardizing, training, creating visual systems and then improving core processes.

The first group of managers to undertake this training comes from our health plan administration group, but the goal is to roll it out to the entire organization, including clinical areas within the next two years. As we organize around Value Streams we will role the training out along those Value Streams. Each training will include the managers of the “production environment” as well as the managers that oversee the supporting departments like IT and HR. Our Lean team will take responsibility for improving the program as it roles out.

While at the surface this program may seem like just a process improvement training our goal is far more ambitious. Each module has specific goals identified of incrementally changing behavior of all levels of leadership. Managers will be required to become more involved in the work and to become trainers and coaches and not just decision makers. We are aligning this program with our strategic plan and every manager in our model line area will be required to standardize three processes over the next year. Finally, in the past it has been the norm that managers seek advice, coaching and support from our training departments. This will no longer be the case. Instead, we have established a cascading coaching and training model where our Directors are required to support front line managers and our VPs are required to support the Directors. For each leadership level we have creating supporting tools to make their jobs easier, but these tools will not be sufficient. To train and coach you need to master the details and know the work. Thus, we anticipate the leaders to be far more involved in the work areas in the future.