Let's Spread the Word

“Jaded Julie, I’m concerned.”

“What’s bothering you, Curmudge? Did Procter & Gamble stop making Metamucil?”

“I’m concerned that there are still people in Affinity who don’t understand Lean. They see a day at work as ‘business as usual’ rather than a day of opportunities for improvement. These folks are still working in their silos without realizing that Affinity must be a series of patient-focused processes.”

“But golly, Curmudge, there have been lots of activities based on Lean principles. To prompt your foggy memory, Senior Person, here are just a few examples:
· The Mercy Oakwood OB/GYN Clinic
· 5S in Mercy’s PCU2
· Patient tracking in St. E’s Emergency Department
· Affinity Medical Group’s quality coding initiative and their more efficient registration process
· We just involved around 90 people in assessing the ‘Patient Experience’.”

“Of course, Julie. And think of all the people who have been through our Lean training. They should be out there sharing what they have learned with their colleagues and training their direct reports.”

“Perhaps many of our graduates haven’t hardwired what they learned. Recall what we wrote on May 22 about how difficult it is to retain what one learns in a workshop? We need a way to put Lean in front of their eyes every day, or at least every week.”

“What about this idea? Anyone attending a workshop given by one of the big consultants ends up on their mailing list and gets e-mail from the outfit forever thereafter. We need constant communication with our graduates. Most of these folks weren’t charter subscribers to the Kaizen Curmudgeon blog; they might not have seen most of the early postings. Let’s e-mail each of our graduates a Kaizen Curmudgeon blog reprint every week. There are 34 postings to date, so our grads will receive a Lean lesson in their e-mail every week for the next eight months.”

“I trust we won’t stop blogging. When we’ve sent out all of the old postings, we can start sending out the newer ones. Hey, Curmudge, this could go on forever.”

“It would be a lot easier, Julie, if everyone at Affinity just subscribed to the blog. In any case, this shouldn’t be too difficult, and we’ll be doing our part to spread the word. We can even send out a Table of Contents and a Title Page saying ‘The Kaizen Curmudgeon and Jaded Julie Talk about Lean in Health Care’.”

“One minor correction, Curmudge. Shouldn’t the title be ‘Jaded Julie and the Kaizen Curmudgeon Talk about Lean in Health Care’?”

“Whatever.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon