DailyKaizen

For the previous two days, I supported our members by getting training in Hoshin Management. It was great - the right content at the right time and place in my own professional transformation.

During our training, we were exposed to some of the concepts I have read about, but not yet experienced, such as catchball and the pacesetter role, and some I have tried, but not yet had broad exposure, like A3 development. There was also a nice sprinkling of content and stories from the world’s most proficient companies in LEAN. There’s something inspiring about seeing a real-live A3 from Toyota Motor, developed at all levels of the organization.

I am particularly intrigued by the pacesetter role. In our organization, divisions are co-led by physicians and operational leaders, as dyads. The operations leaders manage the budget and administrative FTE, meaning that physician leadership occurs through influence rather than authority. I’ve been “practicing” with this setup for some time and am quite comfortable with it - it offers a lot of advantages to the organization in terms of providing clinical relevance in all we do. I am thinking that a physician leader in this environment could serve quite well as a pacesetter specifically because they do not have operational responsibilities. It could be a great mix of clinical knowledge, passion, and organizational structure, set up just right.

The other great thing was the connection to the others in the training. I had not seen Lee in some time, and was delighted to catch up with not just him, but all of his colleagues from the model line that also attended the training. It was like encountering the small society of other LEAN enthusiasts in the organization - a group that is getting larger every day. I also got to learn a lot more about the model line and gently challenged some of my assumptions about there being a “clinical” versus a “health plan” value stream for our members. We all provide care.

I walked to the training in downtown Seattle on the wettest day I have ever experienced in the city. My shoes, socks, and dress pants were completely drenched. Several of us were drying our shoes on the heating vents in the training. What a way to start thinking about the future.

The picture here is what we were left with on our way out of the training. It’s the view from the top of the Smith Tower, onto Elliott Bay.

The sun’s shining. Now I’m ready to do more.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed