The Ever-Elusive Lean Culture
Culture is a popular corporate buzzword that many businesses struggle to define; however, culture does play a huge role in the success or failure of many organizations.  Leadership Teams must identify and mold the existing culture and motivate the workforce in order to achieve the identified goals.  But how do organizations modify something that is so difficult to define?  Here is some helpful advice collected from both successful and unsuccessful attempts at this culture transformation.

Making the Transformation
How do businesses go about creating the right actions for Lean culture transformation?  They have to be led by the right kind of thinking: Lean thinking.  Have leaders throughout your organization been trained to recognize the basic tenets of Lean?  Once leaders begin to look at processes and identify areas of wasted effort, they will naturally begin to make improvements.  For years we have been teaching “tools” of continuous improvement.  “Tools” address people’s actions and work environment, but they have done little to help change the way people “think” about their work. 

Many groups look to the powerful Lean Tool of Kaizen, or Rapid Improvement Events (RIE), as a means to stimulate a culture transformation.  As Lean Practitioners, we have the luxury of seeing this culture transformation take place regularly during Kaizen events.  Groups will begin to absorb Lean Thinking and truly change habits and thinking about their work.  However, Kaizen events can consume considerable resources within an organization.  Because of this we recommend a paced approach to events, approximately one per month. 

How can we accelerate the process of culture transformation without consuming more resources than an organization can afford to invest? 

Simulation
At HPP, we thrive at using simulation-based learning in order to accelerate Lean culture transformation in the Healthcare environment.  However, few training tools are available in the relatively new application of Lean in the healthcare environment.  Therefore, we have developed HPP Healing Healthcare™.  For your organization, it may be another tool that paves the way.  

What’s important is that your simulation approach be an effective means of helping teams shorten the culture transformation process.  We have seen significant results from project activity initiated by staff who merely participated in the half-day training simulation. In addition, the simulation fosters an environment of creativity within teams and builds confidence to apply Lean techniques.

If you have a question about how simulations can best be used, don’t hesitate to give Tom Stoffel a call.  We have received excellent reviews regarding Healing Healthcare™ when used as part of a Lean healthcare implementation, but please let us know if you’ve seen other tools and approaches that can help pave the way toward success.  Maybe we can possibly share with all given we never cease to learn. 

This week’s article was written by Tom Stoffel, a director & consultant for HPP. Before joining HPP, Tom served as President of Transformation Group, Inc. Tom developed TGI Healing Healthcare – a brand of Lean Healthcare training tools designed to make lasting improvements. Tom has led healthcare organizations in both the development of high-level Lean Strategies down to hands-on implementation of Lean in a clinical setting. Tom has achieved the levels of Certified Lean Specialist from the Business Improvement Group and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), along with being an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer. These certifications build on an Engineering Degree from the University of Michigan. Training experience includes Lean, Quality, and Leadership Training, as well as serving as an Adjunct Faculty Member at Waubonsee Community College. Call Tom at the HPP office, (615)206-0701 or email at tstoffel@hpp.bz