“gemba walk” (lean thinking term) to go to the actual place where value is added + “walkabout” (Australian aborigine) a short period of wandering bush life engaged as an occasional interruption of regular work
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I’m in the process of finding what I am calling my “last job”. I say “last job” because I’d like to find one organization to work with before I retire to paint watercolors and ride my bike. This “one organization” has to be committed to the application of lean thinking in healthcare.
I found myself in a very promising situation last week. I made it through 3 phone interviews and a web conference interview. My recommendations were outstanding. The recruiter thought that my face-to-face interviews would be a formality. It looked like a “slam dunk”.
There was a series of back-to-back interviews with a variety of people. In nearly every discussion, I was asked about how I got interested in this process improvement work. In every discussion I recounted how I met Dr. W. Edwards Deming in 1984 and over a 9 year period, had the good fortune of learning from him. I assisted in four of his 4-day seminars. We corresponded back and forth (this was before the days of e-mail). He even cited a paper that my son and I wrote about the “hazards of grading and the lessons of the red bead factory” in his last public seminar”. In his frail voice and gasping for air, he railed at the attendees, “Young Jerry Stoecklein, 9 years old understands the lessons of the red bead factory! Why can’t you understand?”
I left the interviews feeling positive and was envisioning what it would be like to move back to a city where I went to graduate school and where we started raising our family years ago. The city has a great reputation for a lot of the things I like to do, and the company (we’ll call them Acme Healthcare) has a good reputation. It seemed to be a possibility to be on the “ground floor” of a lean transformation that could be very exciting. Maybe this would be my “last job”?
I got the call from the recruiter and she was really at a loss. She told me that Acme Healthcare was not going to be moving forward with me. The reason that she she was given from Acme was that my version of Lean (influenced by Dr. Deming) was thought to be incompatible with that of the external consultants who were helping them. Let’s call them “XYZ consulting”. I told her that I thought that is was odd and I provided her a diagram (see below) which shows a number of relationships that (in my opinion) illustrated that my version of Lean was essentially the same version of that of XYZ consulting and that we were both strongly influenced by Dr. Deming. The recruiter did not offer any examples of the incompatibility (she’s a novice to Lean, and I had to provide her with some articles, book recommendations and websites to try to give her some information).
So, this has caused me to think about some things:
1) For future interviews, should I not mention that I was influenced by Dr. Deming? No, I’m honored to have had that experience and would never exclude it from my professional history.
2) Is it possible that Acme Healthcare does not understand the connections? Possibly. I don’t think I will ever know.
3) Is it possible that Acme cited the “disconnect” as the reason for not moving forward, but there was really another reason? Yes, that’s possible, but if that’s true, I’ll never know (and the recruiter will not know, and will have more difficulty finding a match). No one really learns if this is the case.
4) Is there variation about what people call “Lean”? Yes, without a doubt. I would describe my version as “Real Lean” as described well by Bob Emiliani. I think Dr. Deming’s influence can be seen in his description.
Post script: I’ve had some helpful feedback from friends and colleagues on this post. Here are some of the responses:
* Sorry to read of the disappointing experience with “Acme Healthcare”. I’d guess they had other reasons or xyz consulting was scared you could replace them to easily.
* Perhaps the folks at ”Acme” Healthcare are ‘milling about smartly’ and REALLY don’t want a firm direction, much less someone on the inside that will hold them to it??? Sounds to me they want someone moldable…you come equipped with a tactical approach. Not a battle they wish to engage at this point. hang in there. Someone (no, more likely MANY) seek your expertise…..you just may have to awaken them to the fact. good luck.
* I’m thinking you were a threat to XYZ Consulting. Leading to them loosing the account. I can see that as a possibility (but then what do I know. ou are a good man and Acme missed a great opportunity to strenghten their team.
* after reading the job description, knowing your background, yes, it should’ve been a slam dunk. After reading your “gemba” about the experience…. I can tell you my gut reaction was “incompatibility is an excuse”….. my guess is that they had an insider or an intimately known commodity they had pre-ordained for the job … I find it ironic to say the least that the excuse was “incompatibility” with “your version of Lean”….. heck, Lean (and TQM CQI, etc) are all about adaptability, flexibility… there is no one size fits all…. by definition! So, how is then your greater experience incompatible? Well, its not. Its just an excuse. Besides, the role of the external consultants should be waning at this point anyway… that’s why ACME is hiring someone….. ugh. …
* Sounds like a flaky company if they don’t recognize true talent when they see it. Some organization will be incredibly fortunate when you join them, and I know that will happen soon.
* My advice to you is “run! … run in the other direction from this company!”
So, some useful advice and of course, additional speculation about what’s really going on. Wiithout going back to “the deciders”, I will not know.
