Daily Kaizen

Tomorrow I get to help lead the kickoff a Model Line effort in a large medical group on the West Coast.  Over the next five days we will begin mapping the current state of four large service lines and will train the team Lean principle and practices as we go.  By the end of the month we will be deeply involved in kazien.  It is very exciting

Over the last seven years I was lucky enough to participate from the beginning in a Lean transformation.  We started with point improvements, began a proof of concept transformation (Model Line) and then had the chance to coach leadership as they focused on putting in place a Lean Management system.  I was part of the
first group of internal resources that were trained in Lean.  We hired great Sensei and right from the start they put us to work leading kaizen.
It is amazing how fast time seems to have gone by and how quickly the
transformation moved.   Throughout the process it has felt like I have been holding onto the side of my chair (just the way I like it!) since I was constantly working in unfamiliar territory and learning as I went.

Flying south on an airplane I am reading through the PowerPoint slides I will be teaching over the next couple of days.  The focus of the materials is mainly Lean 101 modules including Value Stream Mapping, Steady Flow, Standard Work and Visual Management.  It has been a while since I have trained teams on the basics so I hope I am not too rusty.  Seven years ago I stepped up in front of a room and trained on similar materials. The difference now is that I have a lot of stories of my own to go along with the didactics.  Instead of talking about cars, airplanes and concepts I can talk about patients, docs and nurses and real experiences of how Lean has improved people’s lives.

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For many years I have had the dream of one day owning my own business.  I am excited to announce that day has come!  I am joining my close friends and teachers Kris and Ed as a partner in Triad Consulting. We are a small firm focused on helping organizations transform through Lean principles and practices.

In 2004 I was a graduate student at the University of Washington and somehow managed to talk my way into an internship at Group Health Cooperative.  The project I was assigned was to help Group Health select an improvement methodology and for me
the Lean journey had begun.  It has been fun to read back through the posts on the blog that chronicles my story and the
story of Lean at Group Health told from my perspective.  What started as a small project with only a small group of people evolved into a transformation across 10,000 amazing people.

I feel so very fortunate to have been given the opportunities that I have been given by a truly great organization that is full of truly great people.  Along the way many, many people have taken a chance on me and for that I am very grateful.

I plan on continuing to share my reflection and stories on the Daily Kaizen for many years to come. The story will be broadened to include many other organizations all in different places on their journey.  Connor and Erika will continue to tell their stories and the story of Group Health as the organization continues its leadership role in Lean and Healthcare in this country.

Thanks to all of you who have read along with me over the last couple of years.  The journey continues, and this will be a start of a new chapter.

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