How Stalwart Lean Leadership and Classic Lean Practices Yield Operational and Clinical Excellence

By Alice Lee

March 30, 2021

Organizations can achieve the seemingly impossible when they have steadfast lean leadership, a sharp focus on purpose, and experience applying "classic" lean thinking and practice. Here's an example.

No one has time, money, or resources to address the same problems again and again, especially a year into a pandemic with the emotional and physical exhaustion and never-ending stress pushing the front line to their limits day after day. It is precisely when lean thinking and practice and unwavering lean leadership are most helpful. The design and repeated modification of the work elements require the discipline of understanding the problem as best as you can and having the fortitude, patience, and support to iterate as you learn more.
Given the growing complexity occasioned by our growing return to normal processes and workflows, coordinating and rationalizing all our work into systems efficiently and effectively has become even more imperative. Kiame Mahaniah MD, CEO, Lynn Community Health Center
So, work in the context of a Covid world – quickly moving and everchanging with lots of unknowns – requires resilience, grit, and a belief that one can make it better. Training and practice in what I’ll call “classic lean” thinking is a significant advantage.

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/how-stalwart-lean-leadership-and-classic-lean-practices-yield-operational-and-clinical-excellence/

Using Lean Thinking to Create an “Emergency Management System”

By Alice Lee

June 30, 2020

The Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) demonstrates how one organization with scarce resources can respond to a problem as daunting as a global pandemic using the same know-how and thinking -- lean thinking -- they have used to solve many problems over the years.

“If you truly believe lean is your operating system, then you don’t stop when a pandemic hits.” – LEI coach Alice Lee’s respectful challenge to Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO LCHC, March 2020 It is easy to quit thinking and doing lean on any given day but easiest of all when disaster strikes. Who would blame you? As an emergent crisis descends, many organizations activate an incident command center and appoint a leader most suited for the particular disaster. In the case of a global pandemic with many unknowns, healthcare organizations around the world appointed their Chief Medical Officer, a trained physician. At the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), the CEO appointed Kimberly Eng, the COO, former chief of staff, and a trained industrial engineer and lean thinking leader. What guided the CEO’s decision?

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/using-lean-thinking-to-create-an-emergency-management-system/

How Lean Can Help Deliver Social Justice While Boosting Quality Health Care

By Alice Lee and Kiame Mahaniah, MD

January 20, 2020

In this podcast, developed from a talk at the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit learn how the Lynn Community Health Center is building successors by turning a recent leadership transition into a catalyst for improvement.

Too often, a change in executive leadership can bring a lean transformation to a grinding halt. But that has not been the case at Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC). LCHC is located 10 miles from downtown Boston, in the economically, culturally, and socially diverse city of Lynn. It is a small but mighty healthcare center serving more than 40,000 patients representing 113 countries and 72 languages – of which over 90 percent live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. To conquer the challenges of serving this vibrant community, LEI has worked with LCHC to create a model primary-care clinic powered by lean. In doing this, LCHC hopes to better serve its customers (and employees!) by tackling wait times and achieving increasingly higher levels of productivity. In this podcast, developed from a talk at the 2018 Lean Transformation Summit by LCHC CEO Kiame Mahaniah, and introduced by LEI Executive Director Alice Lee, learn how LCHC is building successors by turning a leadership transition into a catalyst for improvement. You’ll hear from the two CEOs that exchanged the baton, and find out how they ensured that lean efforts would continue. What did the outgoing CEO do to ensure the continuation of lean thinking? What made the incoming CEO realize that lean thinking truly was the way for everyone?

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/how-lean-can-help-deliver-social-justice-while-boosting-quality-health-care/

31. CEO Transition – an obstacle or an opportunity?

By Lean Enterprise Institute

January 20, 2020

Too often, a change in executive leadership can bring a lean transformation to a grinding halt. But that has not been the case at Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC). Within two years of the start of their lean journey, LCHC CEO Lori Abrams Berry announced her intention to retire. The immediate reaction from the LCHC community was concern that her departure would impact the progress made on advancing lean thinking and practice with improved outcomes and engagement of its team members. Instead, the impending CEO transition was embraced as a challenge, a gap to tackle. Learn how LCHC approached this executive leadership transition to ensure the continuity of their lean transformation. John Shook’s favorite conference keynote of all time, using lean thinking to improve hypertension in a community health centrer.

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/31-ceo-transition-an-obstacle-or-an-opportunity/

A Postcard — with Leadership Insights — from Nashville

By John Shook

October 17, 2022 (2019)

A look back at LEI’s Lean Transformation Summit in 2018 shares a few tips from CEO keynoters on how to successfully lead with lean thinking and practices – and some advice on being a good employer from LEI Founder Jim Womack.

...

A Riveting Keynote: Dr. Kiame Mahaniah

Among the year’s practitioner keynotes was my new favorite conference keynote of all time. Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO of the Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC), spoke about the work of this small center in the economically, culturally, and socially diverse community of Lynn, Massachusetts. The challenges faced by Kiame, LCHC, and the entire Lynn community are immense. In his address, Kiame and his predecessor Lori Berry (in video clips) described LCHC’s lean journey and how they managed the CEO transition. As described in his presentation, their journey addressed the ambitious question: “How do we transform a whole community by transforming its biggest asset, the health center?” Regarding the CEO transition, above all, they prove that a lean transformation can survive a CEO change. Lori and Kiame decided on the radical approach of cooperating in a planful way to transition as seamlessly as possible from CEO A to CEO B, preserving the excellent lean transformation work that began two years ago. Colleagues Bernadette Thomas and Kim Eng, LEI Coach Alice Lee, and the LCHC team supported their efforts. Kiame also briefly shared four critical points that help ensure a successful CEO transition:

Trumpet lean successes – While maintaining the humility Lean Thinkers are known for, you must ensure all the stakeholders know that you attribute the organization’s successes to lean thinking.
Identify people with twin but conflicting personality traits — “who are willing to admit that things are a total mess and yet be able to believe that it can be different.”
Set up lean thinking and practices as “a source of independent authority and wisdom to which you as the CEO, as a leader, can be held accountable.”
Begin succession planning on Day 1.

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/postcard-from-nashville/

Surviving CEO Change, Evolving Through Culture and Being a Humble Leader

By Kiame Mahaniah, MD and John Shook

June 13, 2018

Dr. Mahaniah was kind enough to sit down with LEI’s Chairman, John Shook to talk about growing up in different cultures, from the Congonese to the Quakers, and how he became a CEO in an organization trying to become lean, and helped keep that movement going.

https://www.lean.org/the-lean-post/articles/surviving-ceo-change-evolving-through-culture-and-being-a-humble-leader/

Lean Thinking

How Stalwart Lean Leadership and Classic Lean Practices Yield Operational and Clinical Excellence

Using Lean Thinking to Create an “Emergency Management System”

How Lean Can Help Deliver Social Justice While Boosting Quality Health Care

31. CEO Transition – an obstacle or an opportunity?

A Postcard — with Leadership Insights — from Nashville

...

A Riveting Keynote: Dr. Kiame Mahaniah

Surviving CEO Change, Evolving Through Culture and Being a Humble Leader

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