by Lee Fried, on 12 Apr 2006 07:39 am
The Journey
A Change in the Leadership Model
Typically, in the organization where I work it is the job of consultants and project managers to seek out improvement opportunities and to build a case for change. Leadership picks a project area and the consultant/project manager is expected to collect data, analyze the data and develop a set of recommendation based on what they find. Leadership then reviews these recommendations and either makes a decision or more likely asks for further analysis to be completed. As a result, leadership is often uninformed about the work, decisions are made slowly, and staff doing the analysis becomes frustrated because they are unable to build a strong case in isolation of leadership involvement.
I am currently working with a group of mid-to-senior level Executives to map a Value Stream and we are doing things differently. Rather then having the consultant do the analysis work, I am instead facilitating the process. For the next two weeks I will be spending upwards of 50% of my time with a group of Directors and Managers collecting data and observing the work within our Health Plan Operations Area. Although we are only two days into the “actual work” I can already see the value of this approach. This experience has really highlighted for me the value of going to the Gemba and why the process of discovery is as important as what is discovered. Without understanding the work it is impossible for leadership to make good decisions about how to change the work.
While two weeks may seem like a lot of time to take Directors and Managers out of their regular work, I believe in the long-term it will prove to be a valuable investment. By participating they will see how the work flows horizontally across the vertical “silos” that they manage. The will understand why shifting resources from one area to another makes sense for the organization and the patient. They will understand how their work impacts others and how other’s work impacts theirs. I predict this insight will allow us to make much more drastic improvements then without it, because through involvement we have already begun the change management process. These leaders will not need to ask for more analysis because they will have witnessed first hand the reason for a change and the opportunities for our patients.