Process Excellence

Our services range from highly structured 90-day “Launches” to longer term ongoing coaching, to one-off workshops. Ready to help your team do better work? So are we.

Launches

What can we really change in 90 days? For Process Excellence clients, the question becomes “what can’t we change in 90 days"?

Ready to learn more? Looking for Launch resources? Click here

Virtual Improvement Events (VIEs)

With the recent transition to remote-work, you may have noticed a need for a way to improve your work in a succinct and virtual way.

Virtual Improvement Events offer a way to improve your work, across 3-4 short meetings followed by concentrated improvement activities, similar to our launch process.

Ready to learn more? Click here

Coaching Engagement

Creating a culture of Continuous Improvement on your team isn't easy. Luckily, you don't have to do it alone.

SoM coaching clients work toward mastery of the Daily Management system with the support and partnership of a highly trained Process Excellence coach.

Other Ways to work with us

The Process Excellence team works with teams in other ways to help them do their best work.

Workshops
The Coaching Partner Program

Upcoming Process Excellence Events

Launch Information

Learn more about the improvement workshop many teams use to improve mission critical processes

Explore these tabs to learn more about Launches and how to prepare if you're scheduled for one.

Ready to schedule a Launch for your team? Click here to get started.

Our Launch programs begin with a 3 day “roll up your sleeves” workshop where the team embarks on a detailed exploration of a critical issue. In this workshop, teams will:

Create goals around solving the issue
Map out their existing process
Isolate key pain points
Envision a future state
Brainstorm solutions and
Generate a 90 day action plan

Using a VizBoard to track their work, the team takes the next 90 days to collaboratively work together toward their goal - with 30, 60 & 90 day “Report Out” sessions to their sponsors.

Launches are not only a great way to help your team build muscle around Continuous Improvement, they are a great team-building initiative. Our customers routinely tell us that the 3 day Launch workshop is one of the best decisions they’ve made.

Welcome to the Launchpad! In this section you’ll find all of the information you need to get started on your Launch journey.

T-60 Days from Launch

Reach out to the process excellence team with a potential Launch idea. We can guide you along the process and begin coordinating with you on potential calendar dates. Either scroll down below to the “Contact Us” button on this page and select the option on Launches, or write to us at processexcellence@stanford.edu.

T-45 Days from Launch

Work with the Process Excellence team to fill out a Scope document around your Launch process. A carefully crafted Scope document is fundamental to the success of a great launch. We have a whole resource section devoted to Scope documents on this website (see "Scope Documents").

T-30 Days from Launch

The next thing you’ll have to do is to pick your team. Typically speaking, Process Excellence targets no more than 13 people per Launch. At this stage, dates are confirmed and invites are sent to all attendees.

T-15 Days from Launch

All teams are sent an Introduction to Process Excellence video, which is required viewing for any person who has not already participated in a Launch.

Team leads and/or sponsors are required to ensure all team members are aware of Launch logistics.

Launch Logistics document - google drive link

T-0 Days from Launch

Ready for blastoff! All teams are expected to arrive on time to the Launch Room, having read and understood the Scope Document. The Process Excellence team will take care of the rest.

All Launches begin in earnest with the creation of a Scope document, a one-page form designed to succinctly capture:

the problem a team is seeking to fix
data or customer feedback supporting the significance of this problem
baseline metrics against which the team can track the progress of their improvements.
the beginning and end points of the process the team will target in the launch

The simplicity of a Scope document is its main strength, as it can be read and understood quickly, and as a result, it aligns team members, team leads, and sponsors on exactly what the team will be working on, why it’s working on this, and how it will measure success.

[Video]

[Link to scope examples]

Virtual Improvement Events

Quick improvement facilitated virtually

Virtual Improvement Event Overview

Remote-work will be a central feature of our work life for the considerable future. The Process Excellence team saw the need to devise an improvement workshop that is optimized for remote-work and, similar to a Launch, designed to help teams create a comprehensive improvement plan around a key process. We call this workshop a Virtual Improvement Event, or a VIE. These highly-targeted, lightweight workshops will allow teams to explore a critical process in considerable depth without a huge time commitment.

A Virtual Improvement Event (VIE) consists of 3-4 facilitated 2 hour sessions focused on improving a specific problem and process. A VIE is similar to a Launch in the following ways:

It requires teams to create a scope document in preparation of the event.
The team will use the VIE to create a 90 day action plan centered around focused objectives
The team commits to 30/60/90 day report out structure to show progress and escalate roadblocks
The team commits to managing their work around vizboard and will huddle weekly

However, VIEs differ from Launches in the following ways

VIEs are done in their entirety through Zoom
VIE's require that teams complete some work between sessions.
VIEs are customized to the needs of the customer. This customization is created by the Process Excellence coach and team lead
The scope of problems tackled by VIEs are usually smaller in scope and scale

All Virtual Improvement Events begin in earnest with the creation of a Scope document, a one-page form designed to succinctly capture:

the problem a team is seeking to fix
data or customer feedback supporting the significance of this problem
baseline metrics against which the team can track the progress of their improvements.
the beginning and end points of the process the team will target in the launch

[Video]

[Link to scope examples]

Coaching

Ready to help your team do their best work? So are we.

How coaching works
What to expect

Working with teams to improve their work

The core service of Process Excellence is coaching. Our coaching is designed to help teams generate their best work by improving their ability to collaborate and communicate, by connecting them to the School’s mission, and by giving them the tools to implement a team-driven continuous improvement framework.

We focus on people first because we believe that processes, no matter how beautifully or efficiently designed, depend on the people running them. Get that right first, and you can solve nearly any problem.

As coaches, we can help you do the following:

Create and structure a short, efficient daily huddle that aligns the team
Help you build an easy-to-use vizboard to manage your improvement work
Assist you in crafting simple, powerful goals and metrics that remove ambiguity
Design a system for escalations so teams can get roadblocks quickly cleared
Connect your huddles throughout the organization through a tiered huddle system
Structure sessions that dramatically increase idea generation

Rather than seeing these as standalone services, we connect these within an overall framework called a Daily Management System. In fact, while any one of the above services is helpful by itself, the real magic happens when teams align the components within a system. Our coaches can not only work with a team to deepen their understanding of any one of the above services, we can help your team connect all of them as part of their Daily Management System.

Click here if you'd like to get started with Process Excellence Coaching!

Other ways to work with Process Excellence

Other ways Process Excellence is prepared to support your team

Workshops
Coaching Partner Program

Workshops

In addition to Launches and Virtual Improvement Events, the Process Excellence team offers several workshops to accelerate a team’s understanding of key principles of continuous improvement. These workshops are offered on an on-demand basis and cover the following topics:

Creating an effective scope document (Thinking Within Scope)
Crafting metrics that align with a team’s goals (Metricize)
Writing a powerful Value Proposition Statement (Value Statement Workshop)
Using reflection as a force to sustain improvements (Reflection Workshop)
Brainstorming for Idea Generation (Idea Generation Workshop)

If you’re interested in any of these services, we’re happy to put something together for your team. These workshops are a great way for teams to make rapid progress on a key area of their daily management system.

Coaching Partner Program

From time to time, we encounter individuals who are fascinated by the work carried out by the Process Excellence team and would like to learn the skills needed for coaching and facilitation. Our Coaching Partner Program is designed specifically for these individuals.

Coaching Partners will be exposed to both conceptual and hands-on training. By the end of the program, these coaches will be able to:

Coach a team through Foundational Elements
Facilitate Launches or Virtual Improvement Events
Lead Process Excellence Training

In order to enter the program, the applicant must commit to complete the following:

1 year of participation
Participation in 3 Launches or VIEs
Lead 1 Process Excellence Training

Completion of the program requires the coaching partner to successfully Lead 1 Launch or VIE and take a team through all Foundational Elements.

Candidates are also required to have their department’s support to join this program.

Click here if you're interested in the Coaching Partner Program!

Let's Connect!

Subscribe to our newsletter

Share your feedback

Find a doctor

Clinics & Services

Research Resources

Professional Training

Education Resources