Better Metrics: Understanding Variation and Managing Performance Using Deming Methods

Do you or your leaders find yourselves having to explain every bad data point in a chart or any "red" data point that doesn't meet a goal or target? In a Lean Journey, organizations often introduce daily (or even hourly) performance metrics that are meant to drive change and evaluate performance. But does this "whack a mole" approach to management end up frustrating everybody involved, wasting time, and getting in the way of real improvement?

Dr. W. Edwards Deming used the “Red Bead Game,” which was created in 1982, in hundreds of seminars around the world for over a decade. Today, Mark Graban facilitates the exercise as something that will help any Lean Transformation Journey. In this workshop, we will take a deeper dive into the creation and utilization of better performance tracking charts, based on process behavior charts and “statistical process control” methods. Participants will get to do hands-on work with sample data sets and will be encouraged to bring some of their own charts and data to use and be coached on.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand and differentiate between “common cause” variation (or noise in the system) and “special cause” variation (or a valid signal).
• Better appreciate the fallacy of targets, slogans, and incentives in a system that is poorly designed.
• Get hands-on experience creating “control charts” from different data sets that would be typically used in a Lean Healthcare Transformation.
• Practice interpreting simple “control charts” to more appropriately evaluate performance over time.
• Discuss strategies for introducing this approach into an organization.

Schedule: 1-day (8:00 am - 4:00 pm)

Pre-reading: None

Recommended Reading: None

Recommended Prerequisite Sessions: None

Who Should Attend: Clinical and nonclinical leaders across the healthcare industry