by Ted Eytan, on 28 Nov 2006 10:10 am
The Journey
Is Art in the room?
An exciting aspect of this journey is visiting with other organizations who are thinking about or transforming care using LEAN. It is a bit like traveling internationally and running into someone from your home country. There’s a feeling of commonality and community instantly with that person. There are also interesting differences in communication and custom at the same time. I am very impressed with the openness of organizations that allow someone like me to watch and listen. It’s great for the members I serve because I am learning more and more about the approaches that are most successful.
I won’t tell the stories of organizations I have visited on this blog because they own those. However, what I thought about when I last told our story was whether the next Art Byrne was in the room with us. I reflected on the fact that I started exploring LEAN based on an e-mail message from my boss, so my answer is that she/he probably is/was.
We may not meet her/him for 1 month, 6 months, or 2 years – and that’s just fine. I think the transformation needs to come from within, out of respect for where people are at in their journey.
On top of that, the great news is that I still have not met a care team that doesn’t want to take great care of patients.