by Ted Eytan, on 07 Aug 2007 06:21 am
The Journey
Take your boss to the Gemba with you
I will admit it here: I have a really good boss, actually a great one, actually two great ones (in reality, 580,000 great ones, but these are the two that support me directly). Every Division here is led by a business leader and a clinician leader, and the ones that lead mine never think twice about having our teams as close to patients as possible. This has been true even before we began doing work with LEAN.
So it was with just a little calendar wrangling, but without any lack of desire, that I brought my boss from the business side to one of our medical centers. With one of our members’ consent, he began in the waiting room, shadowed the rooming process, the physician visit, and the physician managing her practice using our electronic systems.
On the way out I asked what were the 10 things that he observed in every 10 minutes and sure enough the things he observed were unique to what I observed, but no less relevant. It was a reminder to me that despite the mind clearing that I do when I go to observe, I still bring a perspective, around use of the electronic system, team approach to care, patient-centered care, which heightens my senses toward these areas.
One of the attributes that makes this boss great is his ability to discover the most important things about a situation in a brief amount of time. Participation in the Gemba is a great activity in this case and the great thing is, it’s always there and the staff enjoy the opportunity to teach. It just takes 20 minutes, no to-do’s when you get back to the office, no speeches required, just watching and listening. I’ll also say that the conversation changes ever so slightly when it’s happening where the patients are getting care. This is a great environment to recommit to what’s most important.
I think everyone should bring their boss to the Gemba. If everyone does that, then everyone will be there eventually. The patients are already there. It’s very possible that you’ll be reminded that you did the most important thing in your work environment : arrange to have a great boss.
on 28 Oct 2008 at 8:45 am 1.A Guide to Bringing Your Boss to the Gemba | DailyKaizen said …
[...] I do, this means shadowing a patient visit. I remember when I brought my boss to the gemba (see : Take your boss to the Gemba with you ) that I provided some guidelines to make things as appealing as possible. I felt I needed to do [...]