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Eliminate Waste:
Reduce Controls on the System

Individuals and organizations use various types of controls to make sure a process or system does not stray too far from standards, requirements, or accepted practices. While useful for protection of the organization, these controls can increase costs, reduce productivity, and stifle improvement. Typical forms of controls include a layered management structure, approval signatures, standardized forms, and reports. A regular review of all of the organization's control procedures by everyone working in the system can result in identifying opportunities to reduce controls on the system without putting the organization at risk.




Examples of Tests of this Change

Organizations can benefit from allowing staff to come up with innovative solutions to problems. For example, one organization gave its smoking cessation project team the flexibility to decide who would do what tasks as long as the job was accomplished. The team soon learned that, with some training, the registration clerk was just as accurate as the physician at "staging" the patients in terms of their smoking. On one team the nurse was better at counseling, while on another team it was the doctor. The team assigned roles based on skill and availability.


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