1. Successful Lean Leadership in Government John Dickson Chief Operations Officer Spokane County jdickson@spokanecounty.org (509) 477-5770

2. My Background... • SME Manufacturing Engineering magazine "Lean Fighter" article (March 2005) • (http://www.sme.org/ProductDetail.aspx?id=32532&terms=lean%20fighter) • SME Lean Directions newsletter "Berg Goes Lean" articles (January and July 2008) • (http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-newsletter.pl?LEAN&20080707&3&) • Spokane Journal of Business “Former Boeing Lean Manufacturing Expert Brings Efficiencies to WorkSource Spokane” article (March 2012) (http://www.spokanejournal.com/article.php?id=7955)

3. Are Lean Expectations Being Met? • Executive Survey* • 22% - very satisfied with lean efforts • 78% - not satisfied with lean efforts • What are the obstacles?** • 36% - middle management resistance • 31% - lack of implementation know-how • 28% - employee resistance • 23% - supervisor resistance * Source: Bob Emiliani, Practical Lean Leadership, The CLBM, LLC (2008) ** Source: Lean Enterprise Institute, State of Lean Survey (2007)

4. 4 Levels of Government… Huge ideas! • Politics • Policy • Performance (the ‘pipes’) • People Big impact... Focus Here! Service to Customers Source: Ken Miller, Where Change Really Happens in Government

5. Who is Our Customer? The toothpaste challenge… • The funders? Crest (inexpensive and effective!) • The users? Parents/kids (healthy/tastes great!) • The stores? Wal-Mart (size, labeling, invoicing…) • The regulators? FDA/ADA (certify/verify content) The people who use our “toothpaste” are usually not the same people who fund it, and our multiple customers have competing interests!

6. Our Opportunity! • Increase our capacity to provide great services • That’s it - REALLY! • Faster leads to better leads to cheaper services • Use the ‘addition by subtraction’ principle • Utilize a very structured process (not people) ‘subtraction’ approach • Less low value process steps = faster process How long does it take to build a house?

7. Spokane County’s Strategy... • Implement a project-based improvement strategy • Standard, structured and logic-based approach • COO and Sponsor develop project team charter and scope • All projects aligned to our ‘Core Business’ • Our key ‘pipes’ - what we must do very well • Utilize focused and ‘fast’ project teams • BoCC-approved charter prior to assembling project team • Project team has 6-8 members from affected units • Each team member commits 2-4 hours/week on project • Projects run for 2-4 months • Upfront team training and creation of guidelines/rules • Sponsor provides team and post-event oversight • Monitoring plan added to COO ‘dashboard’

8. Our Focus… Huge ideas! • Politics • Policy • Performance (the ‘pipes’) • People Big impact... Project teams aligned to what we MUST do well in county government! Service to Customers Source: Ken Miller, Where Change Really Happens in Government

9. Our 5-Step Process… Next prioritized project For Each Project… Step 1: Define our county’s ‘Core Business’ Step 2: Prioritize vital ‘system’ projects Step 3: Document project team charter Step 4: Create structured project team Step 5: Complete project and sustain results Annual BoCC review of what we must do well Quarterly BoCC review to prioritize projects Developed by COO and Sponsor and approved by BoCC Cross-functional team of affected organizations Share results across county and empower Sponsor to sustain the gains

10. Great WA State Resources! • Accountability & Performance • http://www.accountability.wa.gov/leadership/lean/resources.asp • Auditor’s Office Performance Center • http://portal.sao.wa.gov/PerformanceCenter/ • Office of Financial Management • http://www.ofm.wa.gov/performance/default.asp • WSAC Resources and Training Institute • http://www.wacounties.org/wsac/resources.php • http://www.countytraininginstitute.org/

11. In Summary… ...so as county leaders let’s work even closer together and leverage all the great resources and talent available to us to increase our capacity to provide great services!

12. Questions or Comments? If so, please contact me! John Dickson jdickson@spokanecounty.org (509) 477-5770