Archive for category Teamwork
March Madness and the Principles of Operational Excellence at THE University of Dayton
Posted by valuesstreamldr in Family, Lean Principles, Recognition, Teamwork, University of Dayton on March 23, 2014
You may have heard about THE University of Dayton’s bracket busting tour through the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball tournament and perhaps have seen the pictures of their President, Dr. Dan Curran crowd-surfing with the celebrating students in the streets surrounding the university. Perhaps a little background is necessary in order to understand the link of March Madness and Operational Excellence at UD.
My wife and I are in the small percentage of people who picked the University of Dayton to proceed to the sweet sixteen in the NCAA basketball tournament. Dayton, once considered a “bubble” team, (one that may not make the final cut of 64 teams) was seeded 11th in the South region and faces one of the toughest paths to the finals.
Their first game was against interstate foe, The Ohio State University Buckeyes. I can’t call this a rivalry game because of Ohio State’s policy of not scheduling games against in-state schools. The state of Ohio has had it’s share of talented basketball schools – Cincinnati, Xavier, Kent State and Dayton who have all participated in recent NCAA tournaments and have had some success. Even my alma mater, Cleveland State University made a trip to the sweet sixteen back in 1986, while I was earning my MBA, there. For some reason, Ohio State will not schedule a regular season game with another in-state school.
Ohio State has represented the cream of the crop when it comes to NCAA Division 1 basketball in Ohio. We’ve always rooted for the Buckeyes, because of their success and our loyalty to the state of Ohio.
So when the brackets were announced last week, my son, Noah, a freshman at UD was a little torn. After all, we had taught him that you should be loyal to Ohio State and he had grown up always rooting for them. Ohio State started as his first choice of schools to attend for his Engineering undergraduate degree – until we visited both Ohio State and Dayton. Dayton was always a close second due to his older sister having graduated from UD in 2009. After visiting both schools last year, Dayton won his heart and his mind. So when he texted us with the question, “Who am I supposed to root for in the first round?” He may have been thinking more about the Billion Dollar challenge than he was about school loyalty. He later texted, “I want Dayton to win, but I’ve always rooted for OSU. It’s so conflicting, haha”. We helped him make a quick adjustment in his thinking and he, my wife and I filled out our brackets with Dayton beating Ohio State and they did!
Next up, Syracuse, a team that at one time during this season was ranked number 1, having won their first 25 games of the season. Logically, Syracuse should end Dayton’s run in the tournament. It would be silly to pick Dayton, as the experts only gave them a 3.5% chance of making it to the Sweet Sixteen round. We picked them anyway and Dayton won.
Their victory set off a celebration in the streets around the campus, which brings me to my link between the NCAA tournament known as March Madness and Operational Excellence on display at UD.
The President of the University goes to gemba. Not only in the classroom, but he takes to the streets.
As retweeted by the University of Dayton twitter account: Dayton’s president celebrates @DaytonMBB‘s big win by crowd surfing (Pic via @Sami_House). http://bit.ly/OJxcKX / pic.twitter.com/9SiMEsJsmN
That’s right, University of Dayton president, Dr. Daniel Curran, instead of sitting at home and watching news coverage of the celebration, decided it would be best for him to be a part of it. He was not afraid to interact with the celebrating students. It looks like his presence was appreciated by the students, as they could be heard cheering, “Dr. Dan, Dr. Dan, Dr. Dan!”
This represents what many organizations are lacking when it comes to implementing a lean culture. Their leaders don’t want to go the gemba, where the work is done. They would rather look at reports on their computer screens and rely on their managers to go see what is going on. This is what keeps front-line caregivers and associates distanced from their leaders.
We’ve been to Dayton and have met and shook hands with Dr. Curran. He was at the freshman orientation pep rally and opening Mass this fall when my son started his college journey. My wife and I watched from the stands as Dr. Curran interacted with the students. When he spoke later about genuinely being interested in the success of the students, we believed him because we had seen the way he interacted with them.
Dayton practices lean management across the University. Mark Graban posted about their lean initiatives in their back office operations. http://www.leanblog.org/2014/01/a-lean-machine-university-of-dayton-uses-lean-to-improve-operations/
Mark also hosted a podcast with Paul Piechota, Director for the Center for Competitive Change at the University of Dayton School of Engineering. You can listen to the podcast at www.leanblog.org/194
In the podcast, Paul talks about the support from Dr. Curran and how they have adapted lean as a business strategy. Dr. Curran’s leadership is a constant message throughout the podcast.
UD’s quest to achieve operational excellence is not a tool-based approach, rather, it is grounded in guiding principles, starting with their roots as a Marianist university.
We had an opportunity to experience another principal of operational excellence (Respect for Every Individual) at UD recently when our son, Noah, called my wife in the morning a few weeks ago complaining of severe abdominal pain. His roommate had left for the day and there was no one around in his dorm for him to contact. He was lying on his dorm room floor writhing in pain. My wife called 911, who contacted University student services. An ambulance transported Noah to the local hospital where it was discovered that Noah was passing a small kidney stone. He was given some pain-killing medication and was given a ride back to his dorm where we met him after driving the 3.5 hours to ensure everything was ok. He is ok now, but it was a scary morning for him and for us.
While we were driving to Dayton, we received a call from Student Services checking to see that everything was ok and offering us housing for the evening if we wanted it. It is a service that they offer to all parents whose kids require medical attention. We assured them that Noah was ok and that we would not be staying the night, however, we were extremely pleased and thankful for the personal interest in both Noah’s and our well-being.
We were excited to see Dayton students and Dr. Curran celebrating their success by dancing in the streets last night. They will be facing Stanford, another bracket busting team, in Memphis on Thursday. We’re hoping they can continue their dancing in the next two weeks!
We are looking forward to the next few years as we continue to learn and benefit from and celebrate with UD’s President, Faculty, Staff and students.
Goooooo, Dayton Flyers!
Continuous Improvement in Healthcare – A roadmap for transformation.
Posted by valuesstreamldr in Lean Principles, Teamwork on September 19, 2012
I am excited to invite everyone to a 2-day conference on Continuous Improvement in Healthcare, hosted by the Cleveland Clinic on November 11-12.
In addition to sharing some of the continuous improvement activities that have been taking place at the Clinic, we’ve gathered an all-star line-up of Keynote speakers and other healthcare organizations who are leading the way in transforming healthcare through continuous improvement activities.
Keynote Speakers
John Shook, Chairman and CEO of Lean Enterprise Institute.
Lean practitioners will recognize John’s name. Shook learned about lean management while working for Toyota for nearly 11 years in Japan and the U.S., helping it transfer production, engineering, and management systems from Japan to NUMMI and subsequently to other operations around the world.
As co-author of Learning to See John helped introduce the world to value-stream mapping. John also co-authored Kaizen Express, a bi-lingual manual of the essential concepts and tools of the Toyota Production System. In his latest book Managing to Learn, he describes the A3 management process at the heart of lean management and leadership.
On a personal note, I had the great pleasure of having John as the instructor for my Value Stream Mapping training course over 10 years ago, while working at Ford. What a treat it was to learn from the “guy who wrote the book”. His personal insights on his experience while working for Toyota are an inspiration to anyone in the Continuous Improvement community.
Dr. Patricia Gabow, recently retired CEO of Denver Health. Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Dr. Gabow will share her perspective on the role of Leadership in a lean transformation. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Gabow nearly two years ago when Denver Health earned the Shingo Prize Bronze Medallion for Operational Excellence for their Community Health Services division. Spending time with Dr. Gabow and her leadership team left a lasting impression. Under Dr. Gabow’s leadership and despite strong financial pressures on Denver Health, an inner-city safety net hospital, the Denver Health team improved access, improved quality, raised employee engagement, while lowering costs and remaining financially viable. Her positive attitude is contagious and she will share some of her lessons learned.
Alice Lee, Vice President, Business Transformation at Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. 
Alice will share her journey in transforming Beth Isreal Deaconess. Not satisfied with the great progress made to date, Alice has worked tirelessly to keep moving forward. I first saw Alice speak at the Shingo Prize Annual Conference in 2009 about the initial successes her team had accomplished in reducing wait times and improving patient flow. I met her several years later through our involvement with the Healthcare Value Network’s assessment team. She is an engaging speaker who has a driving desire to continuously improve.
Darryl Greene, Executive Director, Continuous Improvement, Cleveland Clinic
Dr. Lisa Yerian, Medical Director, Continuous Improvement, Cleveland Clinic
To close out the morning’s keynote addresses, Darryl Greene and Dr. Lisa Yerian will present Cleveland Clinic’s continuous improvement journey to date and our future destination. After six years of successfully introducing and sheparding continuous improvement, Darryl and Dr. Yerian have positioned Cleveland Clinic to move beyond what we call the establishment of our base camp, to accelerating our journey to excellence. Darryl’s thoughtful, deliberate approach to improvement has been infused with Dr. Yerian’s enthusiastic and never-ending desire to learn to create a dynamic leadership duo that will continue to cement Cleveland Clinic’s role as an international leader in healthcare.
And that’s just the first 4 hours!
Panel Discussion
After lunch, the gathering will be treated to a Leadership Panel discussion with John Shook, Dr. Gabow, Alice Lee and Dr. Yerian about IHI’s Triple Aim Initiative. The panel discussion will be hosted by Greg Surtman, Director, Business Development, Corporate College.
Breakout Sessions
The afternoon will feature 15 breakout sessions to provide participants an opportunity to hear and learn directly from practitioners.
In addition to 10 presentations from Cleveland Clinic personnel, the program will include presentations from:
Shingo Bronze Medallion recipient – Denver Health; Baldrige Award recipient – Henry Ford Health System; Healthcare Value Network member organizations, Christie Clinic (Champaign, IL) , Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, IN), and Akron Children’s Hospital.
Gemba Visits
Day 2 of the event will provide an opportunity for participants to choose 3 of 6 Gemba visits to sites on the Cleveland Clinic main campus. Participants will have the opportunity to see U.S. News and World Report‘s leading Heart Center for the past 18 consecutive years; our Pathology and Laboratory Medicine’s new building that used lean principles in its design; our state-of-the-art Supply Distribution Center; our Emergency department that has effectively implemented a split-flow process to improve patient flow; our nursing floors where we have implemented a process to improve patient responsiveness and finally; have the opportunity to participate in a condensed version of the Cleveland Clinic Experience – a 3.5 hour enterprise alignment activity that over 42,000 Cleveland Clinic caregivers around the world have participated in.
It should be a great day and a half. We’re looking forward to seeing you!
The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and other high-performance teams.
Posted by valuesstreamldr in Shingo, Teamwork on September 2, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
As I sat working in my office, my attention was diverted by the sights and sounds of the Air Force Thunderbirds practicing for this weekend’s National Air Show in Cleveland.
From the Press Release announcing their performance,
“The six select Thunderbird pilots will put their distinct red, white and blue F-16 Falcon jet fighters through a choreographed hour-long performance each day at speeds up to 500 mph and as close as three feet from each other. The Thunderbirds are the U.S. Air Force “Ambassadors in Blue” and represent the United States at approximately 35 sites both home and abroad each year.
The Cleveland National Air Show is a Labor Day Weekend family tradition and one of the largest annual events on the North Coast.
Watching these planes maneuver around the buildings of downtown Cleveland and out over Lake Erie inspires awe at the union of pilots, planes and teamwork. To hear their sound and feel their power as windows and ground shake demands your attention and respect.
I had the good fortune of being a member of the Shingo Prize Site visit team in 1999 that visited the Lockheed-Martin manufacturing facility in Fort Worth, TX where the F-16 Falcon jets come to life. It was a treat to observe the interaction of design engineers, process engineers and assembly line workers transform a bunch of metal, wires and other assorted parts into a finished jet fighter as it traveled down a one-mile long assembly line. 
Not only was the facility a great place to see, but the team of examiners gathered to assess the organization was one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of working with. The team’s co-leaders were George Koenigsaeker, a 2010 inductee into Industry Week’s Manufacturing Hall of Fame and Ross Robson, former Executive Director of the Shingo Prize and Shingo Prize Academy member. Also on the team was Larry Anderson, Lean Gold Certified, past Chairman and co-member with me on the AME/ASQ/Shingo Prize/SME Lean Certification Oversight and Appeals committee. It was truly a high performance team and quite a learning experience for me.
Describing teamwork is a lot like defining quality. The statement “I know it when I see it” applies. However, it doesn’t go deep enough to fully understand the work and dedication required behind the scenes to make the visible product satisfying to both customer and team member.
Achieving, then maintaining high performance is hard work and comes with few shortcuts. Members of high-performance teams receive their reward from the purpose of their work, the satisfaction from their interactions with each other, and ultimately the outcome of their dedication.
What high-performance teams have you been a part of? What are some other examples of high-performance teams that are well-known? What characteristics would you use to describe a high-performance team?
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
Collaborating with the Critic
Posted by valuesstreamldr in Lean Principles, Teamwork on August 11, 2011
I paid my wife one of the highest compliments I can think of today – I told her that she was a great critic! 
I think she understood what I meant, but her raised eyebrow leads me to believe I have some ‘splainin ” to do.
The short-lived tagline of this blog used to say, “Where values are not aligned, it is there you will find waste.” My intent was to use a clever take-off from the Value Stream mapping process that allows you to see waste in processes by observing where the flow of products or services and information stop flowing. Many lean practitioners will tell you that Value Stream mapping is a valuable tool in their continuous improvement toolbox. It looks at work from the point of view of the customer and asks if the customer is willing to pay for the activity. If not, then the work is viewed as “Non-value added” and you should strive to reduce or eliminate the activity. A focus on process improvement, through the elimination of waste will result in a higher Value-add / Non-value add ratio of work, shorten the overall lead time from order to delivery, and improve the quality and productivity of a process. This ultimately leads to lower costs and higher value to the customer.
Experienced lean practitioners will also tell you that having the right culture in place makes a huge difference in how quickly and easily process changes can occur. Creating the proper culture is a key responsibility of leaders. As I discussed in a previous post, The Excellence Experience, leaders should first exude, then expect, then recognize and reward desired behaviors in order to build the foundation for an organization seeking to attain Operational Excellence.
So this morning, my wife told me that she didn’t like my tagline. “It focuses on the negative. You should never, ever, ever, link your work to a negative.” she said. After a brief pause, I acknowledged that she was right. She then didn’t tell me what it should be, rather, she gave me the first part of the tagline, “When values align…” and challenged me to fill in the blank with a positive statement. After some thought, and picturing the blog’s logo, I realized that culture has a multiplying effect on an organization’s improvement efforts, thus my new and improved tagline, “When values align…value multiplies!” I like this much better. What do you think?
If process improvement leads to added value, I submit that organizational alignment leads to multiplied value.
Critics can provide the best opportunities for improvement. Moving forward requires friction. Embrace critics and thank them for challenging your viewpoint and creating a learning opportunity for both of you. Just be sure to take some time to ‘splain yourself. Thanks, Lisa!
America’s got Talent
Posted by valuesstreamldr in 4-H, Beekeeping, County Fair, Lean Principles, Recognition, Teamwork on August 8, 2011
There’s a reality show on NBC that showcases a variety of performers who compete for viewers’ votes to keep moving forward. Weekly winners advance towards the grand prize of landing a headline show in Las Vegas. I have to admit that mixed in with some really goofy acts, there are some real diamonds in the rough who are really talented and discovered through their appearance on the show. This post isn’t about them.
Last week, I wrote about the preparations for the Medina County Fair and what a big part 4-H and the fair played in the education of our children.
This past weekend, my wife, Lisa and I did something we haven’t done since we’ve been married; we spent six hours together – just us, no kids, at the fair, enjoying the sights, sounds and food. It was a fun day, and we re-discovered the real talent developing in our future leaders.
We started our day with a trip to the 4-H booth building that I wrote about last week. The theme for this year’s fair was “Pride”. Some clubs exhibited pride in the projects they worked on and included quotes from club members on what they were most proud of. Other clubs interpreted the Pride theme by referring to their clubs as a Pride of lions.
There were so many references to key #lean leadership principles evident throughout the booths. Here are a few of my favorites.
Next, we went over to the livestock show barn where the annual auction of animals takes place. Kids who have spent the last year caring for cattle, pigs, sheep, turkeys, and other varieties of livestock, learn one of the toughest lessons in life and leadership – letting go. The reward for their hard work is a nice payoff for their investment of time and effort. My son’s girlfriend and her family have been raising cattle and turkeys for years and this year, her younger sister’s cows won Champion County Born and Raised and Reserve Grand Champion carcass. Listening to the auctioneer is pure entertainment as he works the crowd to gain that extra nickel per pound for the 4-H’er. This represents college tuition to many of the kids. They work hard for it and earn a nice reward.
Next up, the open class still exhibits where my daughter, Sara, (who only started knitting a little over a year ago), proudly displayed articles of clothing she has knit for her children. Sara’s projects earned her a First place and several other second and third place ribbons. She can now proudly call herself an award-winning knitter. Actually, one of her projects won a ribbon at last year’s fair, so she was already an award winner. You can see some of her work here and make a purchase if you’re interested.
While we were looking at the still exhibits, the Dock Dog competition started. You may have seen these competitions on television, where dogs leap 20 feet through the air off of a dock and into a pool of water chasing after their favorite toy. These dogs are fun to watch.
By this time we had worked up an appetite and there is no better food than fair food. My doctors at the Cleveland Clinic might think otherwise and I know that I will have some explaining to do at my Weight Watchers meeting this week, but the “Porktato” that we shared was a real treat. It starts with a large baked potato, topped with butter, sour cream and finally smothered with smoked pulled pork and barbecue sauce.
A lemonade to wash it down was welcomed on a hot, muggy day in Northeast Ohio.
After getting re-fueled, we visited the memorial site for the victims of the steam engine explosion I wrote about last week. It was touching to see how nicely the community has pitched in to keep the memory of these neighbors and friends alive.
Next up, the animals. Every year, there are two mother pigs with their litters of about 10 baby piglets nursing an
d playing in their pens. Stayed tuned for a future post on how my favorite bedtime story to read to my kids as they were growing up – Charlotte’s Web, played a big part in my understanding of lean. Sheep, goats, pigs, horses, dairy cattle, rabbits and poultry were all on display for everyone to see up close and personal.
The agriculture building is where we saw one of our favorite displays, the Medina County Beekeepers booth. A plexiglass display case houses a demonstration beehive, enabling fair-goers the opportunity to watch the bees work and challenges them to “find the queen”. Many years ago, I got started in beekeeping while helping my son’s with their 4-H beekeeping project.
Medina, our hometown, is the birthplace of the modern beekeeping industry. 
A.I. Root developed many of the hive technologies that are currently used by beekeepers. While learning about bees, I discovered the secret to their success in keeping their hives vibrant and productive. They have clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each bee in the hive (standard work) and their communication systems are outstanding. While working at Ford, a swarm of bees found their way to the back of our building. I assisted a co-worker who was also a beekeeper in capturing the swarm and then wrote an article for our monthly newsletter about the teamwork displayed by bees. I’ll post that here soon.
Finally, after getting some kettle corn and a milkshake (strawberry) from the 4-H milkshake stand, we settled in to watch and listen to a fiddling competition. Contestants competed in four categories – Youth, Junior, Senior and Open classes. Kids and seniors all played well, but it was the open class where some very good fiddle players showed off their talent. It was a real treat to sit and listen to them under the shelter of a pavilion when the skies opened up with a deluge of rain. The highlight came at the end of the competition when all of the players got together onstage for a jam session.
Yes, there are troubles in the world where competing values struggle to find alignment. This past weekend, however, we experienced a place where values aligned, talent was showcased and we confirmed that America does have talent!
-
You are currently browsing the archives for the Teamwork category.
Values Stream Alignment 