San Mateo County
LEAP Institute Fellowship
In late 2011, the Health System began and later branded a Lean program called LEAP, with an adapted form of a Kaizen Promotion Office known as the LEAP Institute. LEAP stands for Learn, Engage, Aspire, Perfect (as a verb), and refers to continuous learning, engaging every person in the organization in improvement, aspiring to provide our clients with the best possible service, and being constantly driven to serve better.
The LEAP Institute is chartered to actively promote and support Health System’s Divisions’ adoption of Lean practices and culture, as well as being the R&D hub, and establishing quality standards for the application of Lean. The LEAP Institute began work with the San Mateo Medical Center and Clinics and then expanded to other divisions of the Health System. The beginning of our journey traces back to when the San Mateo Medical Center’s (SMMC) leadership came across a Lean application to a safety net hospital. SMMC is the largest of the Health System’s Divisions, and was the first to experiment with, derive results from, and commit to the LEAP transformation.
The LEAP Institute is searching for two full-time fellows. The duration of the assignment will depend on a fit for both parties.
Potential Assignments
In the first year, SMMC committed to a major Lean educational program for a large number of its leaders, and began value stream work focused on several key opportunities for improvement. Since then, SMMC has consistently expanded its LEAP work, and to date has worked on 11 value streams with over 60 week-long kaizen events. In 2014, SMMC guided by the LEAP Institute, experimented with a Business Performance System (BPS). This structured management system is intended to reduce variation in leaders’ management practices, with leaders all following leadership standard work and aligning their daily work with organizational strategy. Three SMMC service areas (two outpatient clinics and one inpatient unit) went through training on the elements of the BPS, and are continuing to implement and customize this system. After this pilot, the goal is to expand it to the rest of SMMC, as well as other Divisions within the Health System. The fellows would join the LEAP Institute to engage in and actively support this valuable work.
Desired Skill Sets
· Passion for public service
· Interest in delivered person-centered services,
· Deep interest in people and processes, servant leadership, and continuous improvement
· Familiarity with ways to process and understand date, and represent it in a way that tells a story that supports improvement efforts.