Lean Managers must practise 'Tough Love'
It is a kind of ‘tough love’ that good Lean operations managers practise in this field, but it is love none the less.
A common reaction to systems improvement methodologies (like Lean applied in healthcare) is to perceive them as somehow careless about patient care and concerned only with systems and processes. It is an understandable reaction until one realises that Lean managers are actually trying to shape organisational behaviour to make the organisation more responsive to patients needs, not less so. Some will hold that the emphasis on systems and processes aims to diminish the role of the individual clinician when in fact the reverse is true, the whole philosophy drives managers to understand patient need and up- skill their teams accordingly, developing a ‘learning organisation culture’.
The importance of systems and processes cannot be dismissed, individuals are important, of course they are, but surely patients in any setting seldom experience good quality care, safe care or even life saving care by the actions of one person working alone. Effective care is delivered by teams working together (often across boundaries) and to a common purpose. It is delivered by teams with shared operating principles and procedures, willing and able to communicate. Effective care is delivered by teams that have adopted clear systems and processes.
Another common temptation is to believe that grouping patients in some way is to ignore their distinct and unique needs, when in fact by grouping patients and thus understanding the demand that each group exerts and meeting it, better patient care for each individual is more certain.
It is a kind of ‘tough love’ that good Lean operations managers practice in this field, but it is love none the less.