Most CEOs spend their time in an air-conditioned office, with no idea about the realities of the factory floor. Lean flips the script. Lean forces leaders to see firsthand what day-to-day operations look like. Sometimes, the first look isn’t pretty.
I remember Mike Rona’s shock when I worked with him on developing the Virginia Mason Production System. The first RPIW in which Rona participated focused on the emergency department. He was shocked. He said to me, “I didn’t realize how bad things were.” I told him that his shock is typical of high-level leaders in organizations:
I remember Mike Rona’s shock when I worked with him on developing the Virginia Mason Production System. The first RPIW in which Rona participated focused on the emergency department. He was shocked. He said to me, “I didn’t realize how bad things were.” I told him that his shock is typical of high-level leaders in organizations:
You’ve spent most of your time leading from the comfort of your office, and now you are seeing the muda—the waste and confusion—your hard-working people deal with every day. Your patients are subjects of a disservice when the leaders are not involved at the grassroots level of ferreting out the waste and leading from the hospital floor instead of from the comfort of the executive suite.
This kind of reaction is exactly why I require leadership team members to make sketches of the hospital floor. At Virginia Mason, I sent leaders out into the medical center to sketch the seven flows of medicine. They were then required to present examples of their sketches. I then told them how a study of Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches had helped Toyota’s consultants and engineers better understand the concept of flow.
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