#20 How to achieve excellence in Healthcare with Mark Graban

Introduction

Welcome to Episode 20 of the Enterprise Excellence Podcast. I am so pleased to have Mr Mark Graban joining us for this episode. Mark helps others learn how to improve to sustain their performance. He is the author of "Lean Hospitals", "Healthcare Kaizen" and most recently "Measures of Success". Mark is the host of several podcasts, including "Lean Blog Interviews" and "My Favourite Mistake". 

Leaders awaken through insight or discovery, and this is necessary for change. Experiential learning within safe environments: simulations and games, e.g. red bean game (W Edwards Demming), effectively allows leaders to reflect on their management practices. This secure play and simulation encourage leaders to find their Aha moment, which will shift their behaviour. Mark uses games that demonstrate Kaizen principles: making an ice cream sundae smoothly or preparing a batch of mailers and envelopes. Mark and his colleagues are currently looking to develop simulations that can be accessed virtually. 

Mark shares some of the results he has seen in Healthcare through an excellence journey; dramatic improvements in patient safety, time savings and performance outcomes in nursing and accuracy and quality in operations. When it is time to review the goals, look at the systems, and create understanding together. Don't blame people, don't judge others. 

 Key take aways:

 The key takeaways for me from this episode are:

1.     Collaboratively helping people set goals

2.     Leadership behaviour – Leaders as coaches vs Leaders as mentors

Thanks again, Mark, what a great episode. Bye for now.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mgraban

Websites: markgraban.com/  (Company Website)     leanblog.org/  (Blog)

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: MarkGraban

05:38min That was my eye-opener. I would never have imagined that there were so many opportunities in health care to improve quality, to improve patient flow, to create better workplaces. 

07:57min The challenges, I mean, back when I was in manufacturing, we learned this mantra of, um, SQDC: safety, quality, delivery and cost. There are huge opportunities, sadly, in all four areas within Healthcare.

17:49min admitting and acknowledging what we don't know and that we should always be learners to learn how to get better at solving problems in an experimental way. Right? So, instead of just preaching what many would call PDCA, or, I prefer the language of Plan, Do, Study, Adjust, or PDSA, as a lot of people would say in Healthcare. You've got to model that behaviour first hand. 

31:48min When you change the system, you can change performance. Don't ask people to try harder and be more careful within their existing system. We have to work together to change the system.

34:04min Let's start the conversation talking about the current condition, the performance gap between where we are and the ideal condition. Let's talk about why that performance or lack thereof, is important, and then let's understand the current state and the causes. Right? So, we build support along the way.

To learn more about what we do, visit www.enterpriseexcellenceacademy.com.
Thanks for your time, and thanks for helping to create a better future.