Planet Lean: The Official online magazine of the Lean Global Network
Learning from one another accelerates our lean progress

Learning from one another accelerates our lean progress

Oriol Cuatrecasas
March 16, 2018

INTERVIEW – By bringing organizations together to regularly share updates on their lean journeys, Instituto Lean Management has managed to create a flourishing lean healthcare community in Catalunya. But hospitals aren't the only ones benefitting.


By: Oriol Cuatrecasas, President, Instituto Lean Management - Barcelona


In the past few years, the lean healthcare community in and around Barcelona has been growing and growing. These days, most hospitals in the area have some kind of lean initiative in place, and I am sure more will join in.

What's interesting about our experience is that it all started with one successful example, the lean transformation of the Consorci Sanitari del Garraf, which has then become a model for other healthcare organizations in the Catalan healthcare system. We at the Instituto Lean Management were lucky enough to observe Garraf in their incredible evolution (which happened as the economic crisis cut healthcare budgets all around the world). Since then, as many others take the leap across Spain, every time we start to work with a new healthcare organization, we take people to see Garraf and other experienced hospitals and encourage them to share their questions and lessons learned.

More recently, we have started to organize day-long "follow the learner" events that bring together several hospitals, but also organizations operating in other sectors (as you know, the principles are the same and there is no doubt they apply to any kind of human endeavor). We just ask them to share. We call this "cross-fertilization", and the benefits this has brought have been fantastic. We encourage you to organize similar events in your organization or region.

In the video below, some of the participants of a recent event will tell you about their experience learning from one another.


THE AUTHOR

Oriol Cuatrecasas photograph
Oriol Cuatrecasas is President of the Instituto Lean Management in Barcelona, Catalunya

Read more

Rethinking an entire production system
September 30, 2014
Rethinking an entire production system

FEATURE - It took a Spanish clinical diagnostics instruments manufacturer the introduction of a new product to realize how an old-fashioned system and management style were preventing the company from thriving.

Continue reading
A better way to learn lean
October 8, 2020
A better way to learn lean

INTERVIEW – The Lean Enterprise Academy just launched the Lean Learning Journey, an online platform from which practitioners can pull the practical knowledge they need in their lean transformation.

Continue reading
A step-by-step guide to leadership and team lean development
June 20, 2016
A step-by-step guide to leadership and team lean development

FEATURE – When middle managers are stressed and overworked, there is no time left for them to improve. Changing the interaction between leaders and teams, using lean principles and empowering people, can truly ignite your transformation.

Continue reading
Lean in legal: applying Lean to virtual processes
November 20, 2024
Lean in legal: applying Lean to virtual processes

CASE STUDY – UK law firm Weightmans has transformed its new legal case intake process using the Lean Transformation Framework, revolutionizing both operations and people development.

Continue reading

Read more

No items found.