Thanks to Elisabeth and the team at GoLeanSixSigma.com for inviting me to contribute some thoughts in this piece:
How Lean Six Sigma Can Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic
Other contributors include:
- Karyn Ross (my podcast with her)
- Mohamed Saleh (podcast coming soon)
- Crystal Davis (my very recent podcast with her)
- Darril Wilburn (my mentions of him)
- Katie Anderson (my podcasts with her)
Part of what I wrote:
With crisis, comes creativity. In healthcare, creative countermeasures to the COVID-19 crisis are a matter of life and death. Lean is not just a toolbox–it's a spirit of seeing problems (hard to miss now), solving problems (as many are doing), and then solving problems for the benefit of others.
COVID-19 requires people to develop new processes and methods for providing care and protecting others. Many healthcare systems have told their process improvement professionals to work from home, putting the employee's health and safety first. But, together with the healthcare system leaders–also working from home–they can still develop new standardized work through web meetings and video chats. Cycles of Plan, Do, Study, Adjust still need to take place. It takes creativity to facilitate from afar.
I love this sentiment from Darril Wilburn:
As a former Toyota team member, I had drilled into my brain, “When times are hard, prepare for when times are easy. When times are easy, prepare for when times are hard.”
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