MBOE recap: Graduation day
“Remember that you have the best knowledge, and you learned from the best.”
These words came from a student wrapping up her capstone project for Fisher’s industry MBOE program, which ended its third intense and exhilarating year Saturday. This group of doctors, nurses, plant managers and administrators learned and shared principles of lean and applied them at their workplace, changing the way that work is done.
And this weekend they made it, walking away with a degree that’s one-of-a-kind in the U.S. Many sacrifices were involved. Instead of taking their kids to the zoo or going out for dinner with spouses and family, they worked on their six-sigma modules. They gave more than 600 hours this year for their professional development, making a positive change at their workplaces. Their projects were aimed at making shop floors and hospital units safer and easier for employees to use, resulting in satisfied customers/patients and a positive bottom-line impact. That learning, guided by some of the best coaches in the country, spread to others that they, in turn, taught.
Some snapshots of the final moments of the MBOE cohort:
The management team from the Evansville school system in Indiana raved about how they successfully made big and small changes. Speaking of the MBOE program, one leader suggested that companies should work “to get your whole team in the program and you will see the widespread improvements.” I have not seen such open-minded executives who are willing to change first before making changes to their organization.
Two students - Dale Scott, lean manager at GE Technology Infrastructure; and Michael Raisor, executive director of process improvement at the Evansville school system – spoke at the pre-commencement session in the evening, an emotional tribute to the camaraderie in the class and the support they received. Helen Zak, president of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network, inspired students to make use of the knowledge and think about how they’ll use all the extra time now that school is over.
The students expressed their gratitude for the knowledge they acquired from the faculty and coaches by giving a gift and coffee mugs imprinted with one important takeaway: Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.
With this cohort finished, the next wave revs up early next year. We’ve already written about the first on-campus week for our new health-care cohort. Check out a podcast from earlier this year where I chat with Mark Graban of LeanBlog.org for more details.
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