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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, Jay Arthur Blog.
When I bought my first house, it didn’t have a garage door opener. I thought I couldn’t afford one. I was wrong. Here’s how that applies to quality improvement:
“Back in 1978, I bought my first house; it was a three bedroom, one and three quarter bath ranch with a two car attached garage. I’d spent most of my money on the down payment, but then I had a few more dollars so I got a refrigerator and a washer and dryer. Unfortunately, my garage did not have a garage door opener [and] I didn’t have the money to go get one, so I just started coming in.
Continue Reading "Garage Door Insight"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Consultants spend a lot of time teaching people how to create run charts. This assumes you’re starting up a new measurement from scratch. Not true. There’s more than enough data laying around to use with control charts which tell you so much more about performance. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“When I attend some of these meetings, people spend a lot of time trying to teach run charts. “Well, when you have fewer than 15 data points, use a run chart.” Well, I want to suggest to you if you don’t have 15 data points, go find some data that does, all right?
Continue Reading "Run from Run Charts to Control Charts"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Six Sigma.
Ever wondered why it’s so hard to propagate improvements from one group to the next? Here’s why and what to do about it:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I was recently at one of the IHI presentations at their conference and they mentioned… “How long does it take for medicine to adopt a new practice?” On average it’s 17 years… 17 years. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? I think penicillin was 25 years, and some of the other things… but 17 years?
“They say, “Well, you know, we haven’t peer reviewed that, so we have to peer review it so we can confirm that your hypothesis is correct and that we can actually…” Right?
Continue Reading "How to Ensure the Adoption of Countermeasures"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
Thrillers and detective novels always have two villains – -the bad guy and the internal bureaucracy. As a Quality Improvement hero, you will face the same problem. Here’s why and what to do about it:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].
“I’ll admit it: I like to read thriller novels. I do, right? I just find them terrific… or detective mystery novels. Invariably the good guy has to go combat some bad actor somewhere. It could be the murderer, it could be a terrorist, it could be whatever it is, but the good guy almost invariably also has to fight the bureaucracy of his police department, the CIA, the FBI, the… whatever the heck it is, right?
Continue Reading "Thriller Novel Insights for Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma.
In school, they always made you search for the one right answer. In real life, things are rarely that simple. There are often many right answers. Here’s how to choose the best among those:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but in school – first grade all the way through college – it seemed like they were preaching that there was always one right answer to a question. You had to get that one right answer to be able to get a hundred percent on your test (unless it was an essay thing, and then that was a different thing).
Continue Reading "The Myth of the One Right Answer"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, QI Macros, Six Sigma.
Ever been tempted to give up on some problem? Think it might be impossible to solve? Consider learning to think like Bill Gates. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I recently watched a documentary about Bill Gates, and the interviewer was asking about… Bill was trying to eradicate polio on the planet, and he had gotten vaccination and kind of gotten it narrowed down to some part of northern Africa (if I remember correctly), but insurgents and rebels and all kinds of things were trying to stop this immunization (which I don’t understand at all, but that’s how it goes, right?).
Continue Reading "Think Like Bill Gates"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights.
Jay Arthur was the featured speaker for the 3/17/2022 ASQ Section 1106 meeting. His topic was Agile Lean Six Sigma. You may view the recorded video of Jay’s webinar below:
If you’re interested in learning more about QI Macros for Excel (the software Jay wrote and developed), click HERE and view the demo video in the yellow box. You may also sign up for a free 30 day trial of the software by filling out the form on that page next to the video, or by signing up at THIS link.
If you’re interested in learning more about Jay’s ideas on Agile Lean Six Sigma, you can download a free brief summary of Jay’s ideas in his “Agile Lean Six Sigma Manifesto,” available at THIS link.
Continue Reading "ASQ Section 1106 – Agile Lean Six Sigma 3/17/2022"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma.
Over 187 members of the American Society for Quality’s(ASQ) Quality Management Division (QMD) signed up for this webinar, with Jay Arthur demonstrating how to achieve both the goal of “zero harm” as well as IHI’s goal of cutting healthcare waste by 50% by 2025.
https://www.qimacros.com/pdf/Zero-Harm-Trillion-Dollar-Prescription.pdf If you saw a feature demonstrated in the webinar that might have been added to QI Macros after the version you’re using (for instance, the Templates Wizard, the Fixed Limit indicator or the automated Process Change Wizard), you may need to purchase an upgrade to bring your QI Macros to the current version. Send an email to support@qimacros.com
Continue Reading "3/16/2022 ASQ QMD – Zero Harm Trillion Dollar Prescription Webinar"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Healthcare.
Never seems like there’s enough time for Quality Improvement. The urgent trumps the important. Here’s what I’ve done:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but everybody keeps talking about, “We have to make time for Quality Improvement and Six Sigma.” I hate to tell you this: There ain’t no time. Right? There’s just not going to be ever enough time, and they’re not going to dedicate a thousand people to go do this with the right number of Black Belts and Green Belts and Yellow Belts.
Continue Reading "No Time for Quality Improvement?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros.
