Design a Business Excellence Model to Implement the Excellence Journey
If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re absolutely right.
—Henry Ford
According to the 2017 PEX Network’s, “Global State of Process Excellence” report 38% of respondents said that the current scope of their process deployment was enterprise wide—this is an increase of 2% from 2015 (Figure 6.1). At the same time, the small-scale pilot implementation has also increased from 13% to 14%. It is heartening to know that the percentage of organizations with no process excellence programs have reduced from 10% to 8%. As process reaches a higher position on the corporate agenda, it is anticipated that this number will continue to reduce and in the next few years, the majority of companies will have adopted operational excellence methodologies and tools on a large scale.
Realizing the impact that operational excellence has on an organization, there is a clear movement in leaders considering enterprise-wide models and frameworks for their organizational excellence journey. Some of the most popular business excellence models include
1.Malcom Baldrige
2.Shingo
3.EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management, Figure 6.2)
While some organizations select their deployment approach directly based on any of the above best practice models, others create a customized model to suit their organization culture. In terms of an infrastructural design to support the deployment, organizations have an option either to create a centralized, decentralized, or combination model, depending upon what accountability culture, leaders want to build among individuals and teams in their organization. Remember, an organization’s cultural operating system operates by a set of rules that guide employee behavior. For that reason, some of the best practice organizations align operational excellence with human resource function. Joseph Grenny, Cofounder of VitalSmarts, says, “The question is not whether you have a cultural operating system—it’s whether yours is one that advances or impedes continuous improvement.”
Figure 6.3 shows a model that was custom developed for implementing More Time to Care at Hospital Heal. This model included key attributes of other best-practice models indicated above. In terms of structure, it included a combination of a centralized and decentralized team that supported the implementation.
The patients guide the leadership to develop an organizational strategy that delivers the best measurable patient outcomes. The gaps identified in the process and outcome measures are taken up as strategic initiatives for improvement. A central core team comprises individuals that have expertise in the knowledge areas listed in the model. “Value stream coach,” a new position and title created to support the excellence journey, is a full-time dedicated resource taken from frontline operations and seconded for a period of thirty months. First, he or she undergoes training with the core team for an initial period of six months and then subsequently facilitates change in the operational areas of clinical, mental health, and corporate for the remaining period of twenty-four months, thereby serving as a bridge to operations. Upon completion of his or her tenure, the individual assumes a leadership role in the organization and is replaced by a new value stream coach. The performance management team assists in evaluating the performance of projects, initiatives, and organizational change. The feedback is continuously provided to the patients and corrective actions, where required, are taken to address the gaps and deliver best-in-class results.
Resource Deployment to Support the Model
Hospital Heal dedicated six full-time resources as value stream coaches (two each from clinical, mental health, and corporate areas) who worked with the core team members from the departments of Quality & Performance Excellence, Education, and Enterprise Risk Management to deliver projects and to establish standard work across the organization. In addition to the value stream coaches, one full-time “data specialist,” part of the performance management department, supported all teams across the organization to define the metrics associated with quality improvement projects and their respective scorecards, establish the formula and baseline, and analyze and trend data. For physicians, a dedicated CQI (continuous quality improvement) coordinator was assigned to support the physician group and integrate their work with not only the hospital operations but also with the components of the organization’s excellence journey. A More Time to Care council was established with representatives from all key areas across the organization. The members of the council volunteered to work in small teams and participated in the development of the foundational elements of the excellence journey. The council met once a month to share their progress with other teams and also acted as an excellent communications resource to other employees in the organization.
Sensei Gyaan: Invest in full-time dedicated resources to facilitate the excellence journey. Note that one full-time resource is better than two operational staff expected to work part time on the journey. Allocate the budget for the resource from the existing operational budget to increase senior leadership commitment.