"Curmudge, don’t you think we should bring our readers up to
date on where we’re ‘at’ in advising the folks at Generic General Hospital on
winning a Shingo Prize?”
“Fictional characters can’t advise, Julie. We can
only speculate on what they might do.
Real people have to be accountable. Although you and I must practice good manners, spelling, and
punctuation, our actions end when we click on ‘Publish’ in Blogger.”
“Nevertheless, readers should know that we described the
Shingo Prize on 9/30/12
and 10/08/12,
and on 10/21/12
we discussed some of the rigorous Shingo Prize requirements. Meeting those Shingo criteria
will be a real bear, Curmudge.”
“Thanks for using ‘bear,’ Julie, instead of a more earthy expression. And recall that in our most recent
posting we discussed middle managers’ need to practice servant leadership and
Goldsmith’s ‘good manners.’ Now,
as promised last time, we must tackle teaching and coaching. ‘Teaching,’ sometimes known as ‘death
by PowerPoint,’ can occur anywhere but is usually envisioned as happening in a
classroom. Regrettably, only 5% on
the material presented in a lecture is retained (1). In contrast, retention is 90% when the material is presented
in one-to-one teaching, i.e., coaching.”
“Although coaching can also occur anywhere, it is most often
done in gemba. I recall your
telling me about Mrs. Curmudgeon’s spending a month in Paris being coached by a
world-class organist. In that
case, gemba was very large churches with very large pipe organs. Nothing could have been further from
the venue most associated with coaching, an athletic playing field.”
“Here is a pretty good definition of coaching: ‘The art of
inspiring, energizing, and facilitating performance, learning, and development
of the person being coached.’
Coaching does not usually start at square one. The person being coached already knows the task, and the
purpose of coaching is to help him or her become better at it. And in addition to the task itself, for
Shingo the ‘associate’ must add proficiency in continuous improvement, metrics,
and compliance with Shingo Principles.”
“So, Curmudge, let’s consider some characteristics of
coaching, especially when middle managers are the coaches and gemba is any department
of a hospital, clinic, and any of their back office or business functions. Remember, all must be included when an
organization is contending for a Shingo Prize.”
“A ‘must-have’ quality of a coach is presence. He or she must be there in gemba. Here’s an extreme historical example.
Lou Boudreau was the shortstop and player-manager of the Cleveland Indians
baseball team in the 1940’s.
Cleveland Stadium was gemba, and Boudreau was there on the field. He
also exemplified another coaching essential—proficiency in the process. Boudreau was an excellent shortstop and
the American League MVP in 1948.”
“Not only must the coach be present and proficient, he/she
must be there in sufficient numbers to guide the workers, called ‘associates’
in Shingo-speak. At Toyota there
is one leader/coach on the assembly line for every five workers. Achieving that ratio with fully-trained
coaches in a hospital won’t be easy.”
“Right as usual, Julie. And in addition, the leader/coach must be a good
communicator—both sending and receiving.
A coach is an intent, active listener and suggests with verbal ‘nudges’
and Socratic questions. Queries
like ‘What metric can we use to show that this is an improvement?’ or ‘What do
you think about…?’. That approach
will help develop a good rapport with the associate and lead her to solving her
problems and improving the process.”
“As you have taught me, Curmudge, ‘rapport (silent t)’ is
one of those words of foreign origin that says it all. ‘A relationship in which people understand
each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.’ It’s a word we don’t use enough, and it represents a
condition that we don’t achieve often enough. So, Old Guy, how does coaching fit into the big Shingo
picture?”
“In Generic General’s quest for a Shingo Prize, coaching is
an essential part of the educational cascade from top leadership through middle
management to the associates. At
each level there will need to be training/coaching on the overall Shingo Prize
program, the elements of continuous process improvement, e.g., Lean, and the
development of meaningful metrics to demonstrate improvements.”
“You know, Curmudge, earlier in our conversation I described
meeting the requirements for a Shingo Prize as being as tough as a bear. I was too gentle. It will be as tough as a mother grizzly
bear with cubs.”
Kaizen Curmudgeon
(1) Some of the material on coaching was presented by Cindy
Jimmerson in May 2007.
No comments:
Post a Comment