I want you to think about the term Leadership for a moment. If I asked any of you to give your definitions I bet there would be many different points of view, some similar, perhaps, but most quite different. Do you envision person who is strong and demanding with rigid concepts about getting things done? Do you envision person who is a good listener, who leads by example? I think there are many valid ideas about leadership, and each probably has its place depending on the situation. I want to focus on what kind of leadership is necessary for changing an society into a Lean society or maintaining a Lean organization. The suspect I pick to do so is that I am a member of a committee that is charged with developing a program to support local physicians and doctor organizations incorporate Lean healthcare with the Wagner continuing Care Model. One of the milestones is to develop leadership locally; leadership in potential also came up as the former identified need in a observe of the local doctor organizations.
When changing an society into a Lean one, the first thing I consider is the person at the top and his characteristics. Without firm withhold from this person the transformation will not be successful and will not endure. In a hospital this would be the Ceo and in a former care setting, the person development the major management decisions, whether the office employer of a physician. One characteristic of this leader should be persistence. Why? Changing the way an society approaches potential requires a cultural change. Such convert will encounter resistance; habitancy tend to resist convert because maintaining the status quo is comfortable. A leader at a hospital, for instance, might after much staff training in Lean tools consequent in getting the front line workers-the nurses, the aides and the doctors--to convert only to have middle management sabotage the efforts. Only with persistence can this roadblock be overcome. Persistence mixed with patience and high standards will be necessary because the changes will take a necessary whole of time too. One year for a former care office to embrace continuous potential revising would not be unusual, whether the leader starts small by changing one part of the office at a time or whether the staff as a whole is trained and asked to change. By the way, in a November 19, 2007 report in the Wall road Journal persistence along with concentration to detail, efficiency, and analytical skills were named as the most prominent skills of successful Ceos.
Attention to information means recognizing and insight how the parts work together. In order to lead convert successfully this would mean insight how different members of a potential revising team work together. Do they complement each other? Do they clash? The leader is responsible for integrating such a team. also insight team dynamics, a leader must understand how the different parts of the healthcare site function. Does the withhold staff or management complement the clinical? For instance, is billing efficient? If not, this has negative consequences in providing clinical care.
Efficiency in potential revising cycles means insight where waste exits in an society and also insight how to utilize staff ideas to eliminate these wastes. For example, in a former care site a leader should have a clear picture of how to cut the time spent looking for misplaced inpatient histories, if paper histories are still being used. Of course, if electronic health records are being used, this qoute would be largely obviated.
A fourth skill very necessary for strong potential revising leadership is analytical skills. A leader should be able to weigh the cost of a potential revising exertion versus the return on investment. Rarely are the success or failure of a potential revising exertion tracked in terms of cost and savings. Focusing only on inpatient health means that sustainability is ignored. With the increase of competition in health care and the arrival of bundling of cost for services in Medicare the financial factor cannot be ignored.
Besides these four characteristics the leader guiding the Lean transformation must also understand some of the basic tools of Lean-process mapping, kaizen events, 5S and voice of the customer, among others. I don't think that the leader needs to be the master of these; rather she should be able to recognize their literal, application and through her foresight of a potential society see that these tools are implemented and the results communicated throughout the organization. One situation, for instance, in which the leader makes sure the tools are implemented correctly is by appointing habitancy with Lean skills to teams; this team might be defining new processes to cope diabetes patients in a former care setting. She should be able to go for an able leader for this team and see that the ideas generated are sorted and disseminated with the best ones implemented. Once the process is implemented the leader should have the impact measured and if the impact is safe bet have the process maintained in spite of base roadblocks such as resistance from those who want to vocalize the status quo, as mentioned above.
In order for a leader to become customary (not an master though) with these tools any approaches are possible. There are many conferences and trainings for lean management available in healthcare. The American community of potential offers such. an additional one approach is to covenant with a consultant who is customary with both healthcare and Lean techniques. Anyone the approach-workshops, conferences, online training or hiring of a consultant--I think it a good idea to consequent up these with a reference text such as A Lean Guide to Transforming Healthcare by Thomas Zidel.
Lest you think that I miss the mark with my characterization of a Lean leader, let me recap one last story. Jaimie Houghton was the Ceo of Corning Glass and implemented Total potential management in the early 90's to Corning. He spent a great deal of time traveling to Corning's units worldwide to drive his foresight of a potential organization. In 1995 one of Corning's units received the Malcolm Baldrige National potential Award. Mr. Houghton retired the next year after successfully imbedding Tqm in Corning. His successor, however, did not have the passion for potential that Mr. Houghton had. The programs were not abandoned but other priorities and visions preempted Mr. Houghton's legacy. The consequent was that sales dropped dramatically and the stock price fell from 3 to as low as .10. In 2002 Mr. Houghton was coaxed out of relinquishment to recovery this failing giant. This time, Mr. Houghton instituted potential using Lean and Six Sigma. He made sure that the programs would endure after he left again. Although the share price is considerably below the high of 3 of old years, the enterprise leads its competitors considerably in shop value. Much of this is attributable to the persistence of Mr. Houghton in ingraining recognized potential approaches into the company.
Characteristics of a thriving Leader in a health Care Setting
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