EVERYTHING is a process Why statistics courses work in the real world “traditional” don’t A visual of why the statistics you are taught in a are many times NOT “basic” academic course APPLICABLE in the real world NO concept of either or HUMAN variation. – “process” Unfortunately, the computer will do anything you want. The more you know what is wrong with your data the more useful it becomes. (“human variation”) The following brief newsletter explains things further and shows the example I did during the seminar comparing three hospitals: of [from Fourth Generation Management] Brian Joiner’s “Levels Fix” Push for “deep level” fixes: that downward trend, why did we go back Elegantly Simple Example: “After up?” Déjà vu? Five Everyday Scenarios (Real situations and data) Scenario #1: Mid-Year Progress Report on Complaints [Total number and % resolution <20 days] the last three years or so, about 25 complaints a month and some months we even get “Over we’re averaging twice that many. I like these numbers, and committed to a very patient don’t we’ve expensive ‘total The graph below on the left was done by my analyst and it compares January through satisfaction’ program. June 2013 versus January through June 2014. other graph, on the right, shows our complaint resolution performance. The three-person department “The responsible for complaint resolution is supposed to get them resolved within 20 days if they I expect a – don’t, special report telling me why it They were obviously able to do it at one-hundred percent once, so I wasn’t. why they do it again! don’t understand can’t as you can see, there are more complaints this year, and resolving them at a lower rate! “That said, they’re Given the higher number of complaints, I all the time. So, what do you think probably shouldn’t demand 100% of giving them a goal that of complaints should be resolved within 20 ‘stretch’ ‘90% days?’
EVERYTHING is a process Why “traditional” statistics courses don’t work in the real world A visual of why the statistics you are taught in a “basic” academic course are many times NOT APPLICABLE in the real world – NO concept of either “process” or HUMAN variation. Unfortunately, the computer will do anything you want. The more you know what is wrong with your data (“human variation”) the more useful it becomes. The following brief newsletter explains things further and shows the example I did during the seminar comparing three hospitals: Brian Joiner’s “Levels of Fix” [from Fourth Generation Management] Push for “deep level” fixes: Elegantly Simple Example: “After that downward trend, why did we go back up?” Déjà vu? Five Everyday Scenarios (Real situations and data) Scenario #1: Mid-Year Progress Report on Complaints [Total number and % resolution <20 days] “Over the last three years or so, we’re averaging about 25 complaints a month and some months we even get twice that many. I don’t like these numbers, and we’ve committed to a very expensive ‘total patient satisfaction’ program. The graph below on the left was done by my analyst and it compares January through June 2013 versus January through June 2014. “The other graph, on the right, shows our complaint resolution performance. The three-person department responsible for complaint resolution is supposed to get them resolved within 20 days – if they don’t, I expect a special report telling me why it wasn’t. They were obviously able to do it at one-hundred percent once, so I don’t understand why they can’t do it again! “That said, as you can see, there are more complaints this year, and they’re resolving them at a lower rate! Given the higher number of complaints, I probably shouldn’t demand 100% all the time. So, what do you think of giving them a ‘stretch’ goal that ‘90% of complaints should be resolved within 20 days?’
Handouts_M2_Balestracci_HANDOUT_final.docx