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Latest "Improvement Insights" Posts
Sometimes your data seems to be telling you something counterintuitive. Here’s a healthcare example using Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and Code Blues. What is your data telling you?
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“Last week I got a call from a customer and they said, “Here’s some data and we need your help a little bit.” (This is rare, okay, but they did ask for help.) So anyway, the issue is in a hospital when patients’ respiratory [numbers] and everything else drops to zero, that’s what they call a Code Blue, right?
Continue Reading "RRTs vs Code Blues – What is Your Data Telling You?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Do you ever struggle with data analysis and problem solving? This might help:
“When I first built my first website for the QI Macros, it was pretty primitive and got going and got some things done. Then about 2012 I needed some help because it wasn’t quite doing everything it should. I resisted getting some help, but I finally found somebody to help me tweak the website and get it going on a useful path. Since then, things have become even more and more complicated with Google Analytics and pay-per-click and all the other stuff that’s going on out there, and it’s just become too complicated for one person to know how to do all of that stuff.
Continue Reading "Psychological Barriers to Asking for Help"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Do you remember the first time you used the tools of quality to get that first jolt of satisfaction from solving a problem? Here’s how to get newcomers to that first jolt a lot more quickly.
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I first got into Quality Improvement I had some great training, and then started trying to do some projects. Man, I don’t know… I struggled for probably… it was almost 18 months before I actually… One day there was an issue that we were having around false fire alarms (which were being caused by cell phones; we didn’t know that).
Continue Reading "Get that Jolt of Quality"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Singapore is teaching children from grade school through high school quality improvement techniques and how to use control charts, Pareto charts, histograms and fishbone diagrams. Here’s what that means for quality:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“This last week I was out in Anaheim for the American Society For Quality’s ASQ World Conference On Quality Improvement. We were exhibiting the QI Macros at the booth, and one guy came by and he was from Singapore. We got to talking and we found out that – guess what?
Continue Reading "Singapore’s K-12 Education for Quality"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Top Gun: Maverick holds a powerful lesson and insight. Here’s how it applies to Lean Six Sigma:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“My wife and I recently went and saw “Top Gun: Maverick.” Maverick’s now this old “test pilot” kind of guy, but he’s called in to help train the best of the best for a special mission. These young hot shots think that he’s an old guy, right? He can’t possibly know anything. It’s kind of funny to watch: they get up and he’s trying to evaluate them and he says, “Let’s get up and we’ll do combat,” and they make a challenge.
Continue Reading "Top Gun: Maverick and the OODA Loop"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Someone recently asked: “What kind of data should I use for control charts and Pareto charts.” The answer is simple. Here it is:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I got a call from someone last week who was talking about how they’ve been a longtime user of QI Macros, and then how educated they were… and then they asked me, “Uh, Jay… I’m not quite sure how to set up… what kind of data should I use for a control chart, and what kind of data should I use for a Pareto chart?”
Continue Reading "What Kind of Data Should I Use?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
The May-June issue of Harvard Business Review reported that leaders need to take a scientific approach to decision-making. Here’s how Six Sigma can help:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was looking through the May/June 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review, and I know this will come as a shock to you, but there’s a whole article in here about how many leaders overuse gut instinct and that they should use a scientific approach to making decisions. Right? They should learn how to use data and testable hypotheses to come up with solutions.
Continue Reading "Use a Scientific Approach To Making Decisions"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
At a recent ASQ Webinar on Agile Lean Six Sigma, someone asked what I thought the number one soft skill would be for quality improvement professionals. Here’s my answer:
“I was doing an Agile Lean Six Sigma workshop for one of the ASQ sections, and in the question and answer part somebody [asked], “What do you think is the number one soft ‘people skill’ that change management agents need?” I thought about it for a second; I thought, “Well, listening.” Listening. You have to learn how to listen to what your people are saying.
“I remember I went to the first hospital that I ever worked with, and they said, “We have a problem with nosocomial infections.”
Continue Reading "Number One Soft Skill for Quality Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
When asked how he tackled writing books, Twain replied with his simple secret to success. Here’s how it applies to quality improvement:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“Mark Twain said the secret to being successful is to get started, and to get started you have to take your huge, potentially impossibly unmanageable thing – a project – and break it down into smaller chunks, and then you start on the first one. You just chunk it down, start on the first one and work your way through.
Continue Reading "Quality Improvement Insight from Mark Twain"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
When I got my first dog, Tai, I had to let him in and out until I discovered dog doors. Here’s how that lesson applies to quality improvement:
“A few years after I got my first house, I got a dog. He was the cutest little mixed breed rescue. His name was Tai, and it was a fun time, but I realized that whenever that dog had to go out I had to open the door and let him out to the back yard. Then when he wanted to come back in, I had to open the door and let him back in.
Continue Reading "Lessons from My First Dog Door"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
