Recently it seems that we’re seeing more and more “Rocks” in organizations as we train and guide healthcare organizations through Lean Healthcare Transformations.  I feel this week’s newsletter, which we initially released almost two years ago in Lean Healthcare Exchange, is more relevant than ever and I consider a must read for any organization.  Forward it to the leadership in your organization as well as those within your span of influence. I was in a Wisconsin hospital recently on a gemba walk to review the work of their great staff’s Lean Healthcare journey, and this article was framed and posted on the wall.  They even have “Rocks” identified that they’ve removed, many of which are indeed man made “rocks”! You’ll have to read the article to understand.  If you’ve read “The Rock” before, read it again and ask yourself what you’ve accomplished since last reading it. If the article is new to you, then ask yourself what you’ll be doing to remove “The Rocks” in your organization.  Thanks and enjoy! Charles Hagood

Our team was recently participating in a Kaizen event with a client who was deeply engaged in solving a problem with a very convoluted process.  The team was doing an excellent job and there were several discussions about going to where the work was being done (Gemba), surfacing this problem and getting to a true ‘root cause’ via a “5 Why’s” based approach,  an action rarely taken with past issues.  We were discussing the results of a lean implementation and the fact that by lowering the water level of waste we would uncover a lot of rocks that lay below the surface.  We referred back to a slide in our Lean Leadership presentation and agreed that they had indeed surfaced a rock and were well on their way to breaking it up – hopefully, to never be dealt with again.  The team was doing well…

The Search

Trying to be a good facilitator, I decided that a good visual prop for the team meeting room would be “a rock”. So, I took a walk.  In a grassy median in the parking lot, lay a single perfectly shaped and sized rock for our motivational icon in the training room.  Not only was it the right size and shaped rock – it was a man-made rock of concrete, gravel, and surface pebbles.  Wow – aren’t most of our problems ‘man made’.  This was the ideal visual aid.  I was really proud of myself.

So, I take my ‘perfect’ rock to the training room.  I carefully wrap a piece of tape around the rock to represent the “water level”. And, I write the name of the problem we are solving on the tape.  It does not get any better than this.  I am getting to the point that I may want to take the rock back to Nashville now – just to show it off.  I can’t wait for the next morning.

The Reveal

Bright and early the next morning, in comes the problem solving team. They all see the rock, like the rock, and stand in awe of this great visual aid I had come up with. But strangely, something unusual was happening that caught my attention.  As people began coming into the room, I started hearing: “Hey, I recognize that rock.  I know where that came from”. Of the first six people to come into the room, four had seen the rock and three of them knew exactly where it had come from.  The people at this facility had walked over and around this rock in the parking lot median on their way into the building for several years.  This rock, in reality a chunk of concrete in the middle of a grassy median, had been mowed around, and trimmed around to ensure the area looked neat.

With this, I became very aware that this was no ordinary rock.  This rock was “the poster child” of unsolved problems in our organizations that we walk around and work around, and maybe even make look neat – but it is the problem rock we never get rid of.  It becomes part of ‘the landscape’ – we see it every day.  We know where it is, we know what it is (a problem), and we may even know where it came from. It becomes so familiar to us that we do not even see it as a ‘rock’ anymore – it becomes part of our every day processes and systems.

This rock is the essence of the push for ‘continuous improvement’ and problem solving in a business environment. Lean Healthcare tools teach you to see and observe differently – especially those wastes or problems (rocks) that you see everyday but in fact you no longer see.

Wow!

What a rock.  If it did not weigh 30-40 pounds, I would send you all one. If you want a picture of my rock let me know.

P.S.

The Company liked the symbolism of this ‘rock’ so much they said “it was their rock” and I could not have it.  What a shame – now, if I could just get an inflatable rock to take on trips with me.

By Lean Healthcare Exchange Contributor, Mike Brown, with edits and input from Charles Hagood, Founder and President of HPP. Mike Brown was a Partner in  HPP.  Mike is an experienced Lean trainer and implementer. He holds a BS Degree in Engineering from the US Air Force Academy and an MBA from Troy State University, and was a former F-15 pilot in the USAF prior to his work in industry starting over 20 years ago.