Performance Improvement ToolsCreate, Get and Share Them

Duke Rohe, BS, FHIMSS

Performance Improvement Specialist

Alias ‘the tool-fool’

How I Feel How I Look

What we would like to achieve in the next few minutes ?

Provide a better understanding of what a tool is and how it can be leveraged to make a difference

Learn how to begin creating a sharing environment

Learn how to become a tool ‘geek’ that your organization can’t do without

Look at a variety of ready-to-use tools and see how they might apply in your area

Purpose 4 creating a tool Accelerate learning Give a guide of predictability Provide a roadmap for similar territory Replicate knowledge efficiently from one

application to another Eliminate the waste of reinventing

knowledge and learning through error A good idea is good. A good idea times 50

is mighty good

Why a presentation on Tools ?

We have finite amount of resources and finite time to get better than the competition

We can no longer afford to redo, waste effort, allow incomplete sharing

We must leverage our strengths or we will drown in our weaknesses

One digging with a shovel does more than a hundred with spoons

Attributes a Sharing Environment

To know is great, to share what is known is mighty

Concept of knowledge management attempts to map knowledge throughout

Access to tools is easy and intuitive Emphasis on sharing, growing knowledge Encourage, allow time, reward discovering

and sharing new wayshttp://www.topten.org

How to Dampen Knowledge Management (or Sharing)

No attention, no time, no dice Make it old, hard to find, not transferable All take and no give Counterproductive incentives

How 2 Begin Become the resident knowledge sharer in

your organization Begin taking notes as if your were the CNN

reporter for your organization. Look for the scaffolding behind your

project work that would guide others Discover business models, cause and

effects, organizational behavior as candidates

How 2 Begin… Look at the scaffolding behind how people

think and act and fill in the missing pieces Gain a dissatisfaction with reinventing

knowledge or having to create what has already been created

Become the source for helpful tools and news around the organization

Think in questions that lead people to the right action/answer

How 2 Begin… again Bridge the gap between the need-to-know

need-to-share of communication Think of ways you can engage staff to

continue resolving their own challenges Find ways to stimulate thinking to what

might be overlooked Practice paranoia to get folks to surface

those landmines that sink success

How 2 Begin… and again Read what works in other industry. Find

the no duh-uh application that people discount or tend to overlook

Itemize those things you wish you would have known or done different

File these electronically by how it might be used, Communication, teams, project management… for quick reference

How 2 serve it up Think simplicity, bite size chunks,

understandable by the “little people” Offer no more than they need to know, no

less than what is needed to be successful Give folks a menu for the best resultsMake it fun, interesting. Not everything in

healthcare has to hurt or be boring. Turn it upside down: For worst results, do

this.

How 2 serve it up Limit it to one page is best. Categorize where possible, use font

types to make it easy/interesting Spend time to groom it. Give me more time and

I’ll write you a shorter letter Mark Twain

Put you name/department on it. a Duke original, contributed by Duke, modified by Duke, forgotten by Duke.

How 2 spread it around Distribute via email. “Weekly Reader to

subscribers” Offer it to periodicals, newsletters,

professional journals, conferencesNetwork it with your peers in other areas.

It creates a favor-mentality on the other end

How 2 spread it around Give it away internally. Got a need? Here’s

a tool. Put these filed tools out on a common

server for all to access. Refresh periodically the users memory of

what’s out there

*The most valuable tool fills a need in a crisis and is given away for free.

A test of the best The best tools have function over time and

in various applicationsV = B x U

Value = the benefit of the tool times its use

(if it is free or very reasonable and available, its value will grow -- others will seek out its creator and that is worth a bundle)

Reminder Honor your sources

If you use their stuff, acknowledge them

A tool’s best compliment Someone else improves on it or shares it with a peer.

The worst tool is an ingenious one that is never created nor shared

What Qualifies as a Tool ?

If it can accelerate learning or success it qualifies: Forms, bullet-format notes, new thought-

provokers, proverbial wisdom. Icebreakers and debriefs, tests that lead you to

your answer Questions that drive folks to their solutions,

action item trackers Common sense revisited, notable quoteables,

comic reliefs

What Qualifies ? A guide or pattern for achieving results,

doing things right and avoiding pitfalls List of how-to’s, have-you’s, do-do’s, don’t-

do’s and how-do-you-do’s (checking to see if you are reading)

Summary notes that will inspire and inform. Summary of books, conferences…

Step-by-step procedures, observations of causes and effects

What Qualifies ? Concepts translated from one industry to

the next New knowledge or thought-provoking

abstracts Macro-rich spreadsheets and databases

with multiple applications Checklists, visual examples Complex methodologies boiled down to

their pertinent points

What Qualifies ? Personal pieces that bring life to life, heart

warmers, life expanders Little techniques that bring great results Summary of ideas that have worked

elsewhere Lessons learned from a project, especially

the “never do this” Samples, examples and starter fluid for an

application

Folders for EASY Access and HIGH use New Stuff Red Tag Benchmarking Communication Change Culture Cliffnotes Idea Grow U

Knowledge Mgmt Process Mgmt Project Mgmt Quality Reengineering Service Systems Thinking Teams Visual Control Visioning

How 2 end

The worst tool is an ingenious one that is never created nor shared.

What you put into life is also a measure of what you get out of it. Don’t cheat yourself.

If you would like a set of around 1000 electronic tools ready to modify, email me at drohe@pdq.net

Other tool sites (around 200 each)

http://shs.iienet.org/ and select Resource http://www.himsssct.org/tools/tools.htmlhttp://www.amcreativityassoc.org/toolsindex.htm