Data-driven Improvement

Organizations pursuing excellence become experts in improvement.

• to prioritize where improvement efforts are most needed
• to guide and steer the improvement efforts, and
• to verify that the implemented changes are in fact improvements.
  

They create lasting improvements that benefit their customers.

While that is the environment in a high-performing organization, it is important to match your approach to your organization’s development.

Let me illustrate with a couple of examples:

Organization #1 is an organization that had largely stayed the same for several years under a prior CEO whose focus was on maintaining a steady state. Under new leadership now, improvement, innovation, and change are the norm. Yet, given its history, this organization did not have a method for improvement, nor a way of launching improvement teams.

This organization put in place an improvement process to set a new course. This involves:

• looking at metrics on a regular basis to establish priority areas for improvement
• establishing an oversight process for improvement work
• designing an improvement method that blended process improvement, project management, and change management
• selecting initial teams and team leads to learn and apply the new improvement process
• running several improvement projects and evaluating the impact on metrics
• evaluating the improvement approach.

This organization matched its approach to its organizational development.

They created an improvement approach that involved staff directly in uncovering root cause issues and developing solutions to those issues. They spent the time to educate team members in the improvement process and leaders provided visible support to the teams. Further, they provided ready support with data and analysis to measure the impact of changes.

Organization #2 is an organization further along in its data-driven improvement approach.

They have recently embarked on yet another iteration in their organizational maturity.

Over a decade ago, this organization first established both a culture and discipline of improvement and the use of data to drive improvement efforts. They equipped leaders at all levels with skills and tools in team-based planning and improvement, and utilized metrics at all levels in the organization to manage programs and services.

More recently, they upped their approach by establishing a cross-organizational “Data Team” to support managers and leaders in the use and interpretation of data to inform improvement efforts. This team includes several senior leaders and key data folks who meet with each middle manager to examine and discuss key performance metrics about their program area. This collaborative Data Team approach allows for multiple and varied perspectives to inform the analysis, interpretation of trends, and therefore action. The aim is to substantially increase the skills and confidence of all managers in the use of data to drive (and measure) needed improvements.

The Data Team discussions are purposefully timed to coincide with the Quality Improvement Committee calendar; hence data discussions tie directly with QI efforts.

This approach is well matched to this organization’s development.

Given their longer track record of successful improvement efforts, managers at all levels are now fully supported in the use of data to identify and manage program improvements. The transparent and collaborative Data Team approach is yet another stepping stone in their data-driven improvement approach.

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Kathy Letendre, President and Founder of Letendre & Associates, advises organizations and leaders to create their excellence advantage.
Contact Kathy by phone or text at 802-779-4315 or via email.