Thursday, February 21, 2008

SWAT Update


According to my spies, the SWAT Team has been very busy executing their mission of spreading successful ideas for change that have been tested and identified as priorities throughout the different teams and departments in the organization. (The blog interface doesn't have grammar check but I bet that's a run on sentence.)


There are two PSDA's (Plan Do Study Act) that SWAT is currently working on spreading. The first one has to do with communication. They are replacing the assorted curling pieces of paper that get taped up in various locations with nice sign holders in more strategic locations. You may see these appear in employee restrooms (captive audience) and also in HA check in rooms. Spontaneous research shows that 9 out of 10 successful organizations use alternative means of communication like this to spread information to their teams. One example of a place where this has been successful is at Children's Hospital.


The other PDSA they are working on right now is radio use. They are trying out the idea of team radios rather than assigning radios to an individual. The radios will be stored in a common area for that team and will be color coded. The common area serves as a central meeting place for the team before the start of each shift and the color coding of the radios is designed to thwart the radio gremlins that sneak in after midnight and misplace radios.


If you have forgotten who or what the SWAT Team is you can follow the link for SWAT 101. If you have other ideas to spread successful PDSA's feel free to mention it to one of the team members.

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