Do People Really Resist Change?

People always resist change.

This must be true if you listen to the “experts” when it comes to organizations implementing new ideas, approaches, programs, etc..  And these organizations can be anything from the place you work to your local rotary club and all things in-between.

It seems that whenever a new program is attempted to be implemented, and it falls short of expectations, that the leaders who were charged with the implementation write off the failure to the conventional wisdom that people just resist change.

But is that really true? 

Physician Practice Consolidation, Patients, and Process

Healthcare systems appear to be on a late night binge lately, gobbling up Physician practices as fast as they can.  It all seems to be part of their “Physician Growth Strategy” – otherwise known as “rather than entice physicians to practice at my system by providing exceptional service and patient care, I’ll just buy them out, make them employees, and structure their contracts so it is to their benefit to send the patients to me.”  Well, whatever the reason it’s happening a lot.

Mark Carter recently wrote about his experience with his newly acquired physician on his Healthcare Strategy blog.  His physician stated the usual reasons for being bought out – increased back office efficiency, electronic medical records, help with contracting, etc.  Not mentioned, but probably a major driving factor was income stability – a salary not dependent upon patient mix (that was now the Healthcare Systems problem).  [Click here for the entire article]

While this was all good for the physician, what about for the patient?

Beyond Lean – To Where?

I recently came across a seminar advertised as “Beyond Lean – Optimizing Factory Performance.”  The synopsis mentions learning about “Lean-Plus” and moving “…beyond conventional Lean Manufacturing.” Huh?

EHR Meaningful Use Criteria

Late last year (2009), CMS released the proposed Stage 1 criteria for Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records (EHR) for Eligible Professionals and Hospitals.  (A nice summary of the criteria prepared by my colleague, Jason Miller, is available here, as well as some other useful links)  A quick look at the criteria shows that many providers are probably already performing parts of many of the criteria.  This could be dangerous.

Remember the Other Perspective

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is our (society’s) ability to insulate ourselves from activities occurring beyond our own area of expertise or interest.  I lead a seminar the other day to present some of the fundamentals of Process Improvement to attorneys and how these fundamentals could be applied to their firms.  When I asked how many had heard of “Lean”, a couple raised their hands; “Six Sigma” grabbed a few more, but “Theory of Constraints” – nada.

EHR & The Ghost of Technologies Past

“It’s like déjà-vu all over again” Yogi Berra famously once said, and yes, it is. We’ve been here before.  The promise of a new technology the will create so many efficiencies – too many to count.  It will make everyone’s life so much ‘easier’ and allow the organization to make unprecedented gains.

The Importance of Error-Proofing

Error-Proofing, Mistake-Proofing, Poka-Yoke.  Whatever name we want to give them, they all are methods that help operators avoid mistakes in their work.  Devices and tools based on this premise have been utilized in virtually every industry to minimize / eliminate the ability of an operator to make a mistake and pass that mistake to the next step in the process – the elimination of human error.  But, just how far should we take this?

Before Process – Define Purpose and Value

When pursuing an improvement activity, it is absolutely critical to that one defines the process of the activity to be improved.  Whether this is an effort to reduce cycle time in an operation or the installation of a new IT system, understanding the process is essential to ensuring the improvement is successful.

However, before diving into process definition, it is even more important to take a step back from the process and first ask, “What it the purpose of this activity, and what value does it provide the customer?”

Lean, Six Sigma, Value Streams – Podcast with Business901

A couple of days ago I talked with Joe Dager at Business 901 about a variety of topics around Process and Performance Improvement.  Topics included Lean, Six Sigma, Value Stream Analysis and many others.

Here is the link to the Podcast :  Podcast with Business901

Hope you enjoy!

Glenn

Value People Process

People Process Technology.  Few can dispute the importance of each of these three words in an organization.  There may be disagreement on the order of the words – my argument being that for years organizations have focused on the technology, glanced at the process, and ignored the people – thus one of the reasons for many IT failures organizations experience.  To break this trend, the approach I’ve espoused is to Focus on the Process while Engaging and Involving the People to Prepare for Technology.  I’m convinced this is the right approach when addressing these three words.  But, are they the right three words we should be focusing on?