by Ted Eytan, on 27 Feb 2008 09:08 am
The Journey
Presentation “Application of the Toyota Management System across the GHC System” Now available
Slide: Appointment calendar, before and after standard work, Group Health Cooperative
Yesterday, Karl Hoover, Lee Fried, and myself led a national Web event sponsored by the Alliance of Community Health Plans about Group Health’s enterprise deployment of the Toyota Management System.
I asked Karl and ACHP if they wouldn’t mind flipping the switch to make the presentation open not just to ACHP members, but the entire public, and they both said yes, so it’s now available to this audience (and anyone else who would like it):
I pulled out one slide here to show an example that I think a lot of you will recognize as a challenge in your work lives. Look what is happening to appointment calendars due to standard work.
A byproduct of the work that I alluded to in my part of the presentation has been partnership. It was remarked by our host at the end of our talk that we ran exactly on time, which is often a challenge for a talk with three speakers. The fact is that we work very well together because we have seen so much (double underscore) through this journey together, even though we are very different people. Right before the talk started, with me in DC, and Karl and Lee in Seattle, I asked how their stress level was. I think they paused for a bit and then began laughing together. I know what that laugh means. We are working hard and having fun. I hope that comes across in the talk. Enjoy!
Feel free to post your comments and questions below. Thank you again to our employer, Group Health Cooperative, and Alliance of Community Health Plans, for hosting the session and supporting our interest in sharing with every health care system.
on 27 Feb 2008 at 9:58 am 1.Rich said …
Hi!
I’m quite excited that you provided this presentation for open viewing - thanks!
Not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but the audio is giving me troubles. I hear voices, but it is wildly distorted…Is this a me-only problem?
thank you again
Richard
on 27 Feb 2008 at 10:18 am 2.Ted Eytan said …
Hi Richard,
It doesn’t sound so good for me either. Let me dispatch a note off to our friends at ACHP and see if this can be fixed.
Thanks for the comment,
Ted
on 27 Feb 2008 at 1:21 pm 3.Ted Eytan said …
Unfortunately, we were unable to rescue the audio portion of the Webcast, so the PDF is now available instead.
Sorry about the mishap. I suppose this means we’ll have to come to each of your Gembas and give the presentation there, in person :).
on 27 Feb 2008 at 2:48 pm 4.Rich said …
Your welcome at my Gemba anytime
Thanks for the PDF.
Richard
on 28 Feb 2008 at 3:38 pm 5.Chuck said …
Thanks for taking the time to offer material like this. I do have a question/comment on the appointment calendar. It is difficult to read, but based on the color coding, while it seems more organized, it seems that it has turned into a batch process.
on 28 Feb 2008 at 11:22 pm 6.Lee Fried said …
Hi Chuck,
There is no doubt that there is a lot of room for improvement. Our first step was to standardize, make visual and measure. Within this process we did end up batching a lot of meetings, but we now have visibility of where the problems are and can start asking the purpose question. While this batching may seem like a waste it is nothing compared to the chaos we had before these standards were put in place. Hopefully we will be able to continue to improve and reduce the reason for meeting in the first place!
Thanks for asking,
Lee
on 05 Jun 2008 at 2:27 pm 7.GHC Worker said …
Do they know how the staff at GHC really feel about this? No. The staff laugh at management who are playing with pieces of paper rather than actually doing anything to earn their wages. The walls covered with Post-It notes are ignored. If you need to use a fancy word before you talk to your staff then you’re so out of touch you could be living on a different planet.
on 05 Jun 2008 at 3:11 pm 8.James Hereford said …
I think it is a good thing to view changes skeptically. The proper attitude of the scientific mind is to not believe until there is evidence to believe. If this is only about Post-It notes on a wall,then your skepticism is well founded. However, if it helps us understand the work, how much there is, what the status of the work is, then it is beneficial. If it also helps us make in making decisions about what work to do and not do, then it will be an important change.
Our historical management system has been to achieve results through heroic actions by staff and managers. A process whose first step is “recruit a hero” is clearly not optimal nor sustainable. Our aim is to have a rational and fact based conversation at GHC regarding what our customers need from us and what our capacity is to deliver those changes, and to then pull the right work into the system in the right order. In this way, people can have a sustainable way of producing great results.
James Hereford
Executive Vice-President
Strategic Services & Quality
Group Health Cooperative
on 05 Jun 2008 at 5:37 pm 9.Ted Eytan said …
Dear Group Health colleague,
If it’s not clear to you how the post-it notes are being used to help members stay healthy, please, ask the question - “How is this connected to what we do to help our members?”
I think that’s a great question for anything you see, anytime, and our members would applaud you for asking it in everything you do.
At some level, posting your comment here is asking that question, and I applaud you for doing it. Try it in your workplace next. Post what happens. Call Lee, myself, or James if the answer isn’t clear to you.
I can tell you that the ability to ask that question by itself has been transformational for me, and just about 100% of the time, people will stop, focus, and work through the answer with me.
If any of our other readers have advice for our colleague, please post as well, this is the right conversation. Everyone cares about doing the right thing for the most important people and they deserve to know how what they do is helpful,
Ted