Category: Operations
Have you ever heard the WII-FM Station when driving change at your organization?
Not familiar with the station? You’ve probably heard many people resisting that change saying it: “What’s In It For Me?”
I never fail to be reminded that lean thinking makes sense anywhere – and everywhere. The latest occasion was at a friend’s house a few weekends ago making an Indian bread called paratha. I had made them in the past, but this was the first time it really registered to me as a process. Just watch how lean thinking takes over in the kitchen.
My friend began the setup by making a large dough ball, kneading wheat flour,salt and water. The process steps entailed
It’s not uncommon to blame other departments or people for the inefficiencies in your own processes. While working on process improvement projects, I’ve heard it all: “It’s the doctors who are the problem,” “Finance just gets paid to make things difficult for us,” “It’s the emergency department’s fault.”
As a journalist, I was taught to eschew jargon and cut to the heart of the matter, sending corporate buzzwords like “synergy” to the trash bin along with serial commas. I’m pre-emptively asking for forgiveness, then, as I describe the great things that went on in a recent Center for Operational Excellence-sponsored event. If our first attempt at a World Café wasn’t a textbook example of synergy, I don’t know what is.