Cultural Background

• Administration

• Health Care

• Program Delivery

• 5 S + 2

Many organizations operate on a principle of “blame and shame”. If an employee happens to be at the point in a process where problems occur, that employee tends to get blamed for the defects that occur in the process. Dr. Deming and others have taught us that defective processes and lack of proper training, not individual people, cause about 94% of all defects that occur in business. We are so intertwined in our processes that a defect that survives moving through even one process step is attributed to whoever is in charge of the process step where the defect is discovered. As a result, defects are covered up or, even worse, passed along the value chain until discovered in someone else’s process step.

The first cultural change Chugachmiut made was the elimination of blame and of shame. We do not want finger pointing occurring when a defect is discovered, and with Lean we try to mistake proof (Poke Yoke) our processes so that a defect is never passed to the next step in the process without actively correcting the defect and the process. Our employees have to be taught that they don’t always know where the defect was created and may point fingers inappropriately. They then had to be taught to immediately Kaizen the defect and discover why it occurred. That it occurred is in the past now, and we have to ensure that it doesn’t occur again. It may take just a matter of minutes to correct the defect and the process. The process of finger pointing and anger takes a much longer time.

“This does not mean the elimination of accountability. We are all responsible for increasing value to our customers. And we are all responsible for our own work, including acknowledging when we are not properly trained to handle our duties.

"Problems are Treasures.” Dr. Jackson taught us that every problem we encounter is a treasure. The reason for this cultural change is simple and clear. If we know about a problem, we can fix it and prevent it from causing a loss of value to a customer. A defective service creates bad feelings and requires additional time and effort to make right, which is “Rework.”

Within administrative processes, we had to try to define who the Customer is. The answer we have accepted is that the Customer is the next Process. As an example, an employee submitting a time sheet to their supervisor must think of the supervisor as their customer and produce a defect free timesheet. If the supervisor discovers a defect, the employee submitting the defective timesheet must receive the timesheet back for correction, and receive training on the correct way to deliver a defect free timesheet. We will talk about what impact defective timesheets and lax processes had on Chugachmiut’s payroll process in the next section.

Chugachmiut also strives to be fact based in its decision-making, and non judgmental. We do not use rumor or unsubstantiated information to make decisions. We use the scientific method of management.