{"id":262,"date":"2019-12-02T01:27:20","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T01:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/?p=262"},"modified":"2024-09-08T16:54:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-08T16:54:44","slug":"small-is-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/small-is-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Small is Beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Unfortunately, as we come to the end of the year, it just feels like there are so many huge things that we still all have to deal with.\u00a0\u00a0I have to confess that I now quickly scroll past any tweets or facebook posts about the rate at which the icecaps are melting.\u00a0\u00a0I know that the planet is doomed and we have to act on it fast, I\u2019m just so worried that no one is stepping up to do the major things that are required to make a difference, that I just speed on past, ‘deep in de middle of de nile’.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Brexit, where are we further on that one? On the day of the referendum I posted something on facebook to declare that I have voted \u201cCome on everyone! Let\u2019s show the world that we\u2019re not clinging onto some kind of isolationist fantasy!\u201d My post was full of hope and trepidation, yet ultimately pointless.\u00a0\u00a0My friend posted something that day (and every day, EVERY DAY, I marvel at his genius insight) \u201cVote Remain if you don\u2019t want to hear about this every day for the next 4 years\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They should have put that on a bus.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plus, as\u00a0Malcolm Gladwell eloquently states<\/a>,\u201cI\u2019m amused by how .. the British simultaneously will have all the elections they can stomach in as short a time as possible but the referendum is sacrosanct and we can only do that once\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0So yes, ANOTHER General Election, the result of which TERRIFIES me. A No Deal Brexit will be just the beginning of the years and years of trade negotiations. I am tired of stockpiling Calpol.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So yes, many BIG things, but at least within improvement, there\u2019s a clear trend towards the power of the small. Indeed, when looking at processes, often what\u2019s required are major systemic changes which are really quite difficult to change. The weight and scale of the change needed can feel all too consuming, too much to contemplate. So, it\u2019s refreshing to see a move to \u2018one step at a time\u2019 within the lean community.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The key focus for this activity seems to be the work of Mike Rother, whose book \u2018Toyota Kata\u2019 has catalyzed an improvement movement focused on training the brain to regularly apply a scientific approach to work via a series of small improvement experiments. If you were a fan of the Karate Kid film, Kata is the \u2018wax on, wax off\u2019, \u2018paint the house up, paint the house, down\u2019 repetitive practice that Mr Miyagi made his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 undertake to learn the martial art (whilst helpfully completing a variety of household chores\u00a0\ud83d\ude42 ).\u00a0\u00a0Kata helps your movements to become instinctive without the need to be enacted or processed.\u00a0\u00a0Toyota Kata invites you to have a vision of where you want to get to, then understand where you are now, what your next goal is, and decide on an experiment about how to reach that next step.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about regularly thinking about problems and change in order to \u2018train your brain\u2019 to look for improvement and iterate change to get closer to it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I participated in a Toyota Kata workshop<\/a> recently, which was great, and what was really interesting was that as we worked through a series of mini experiments, that our performance often \u2018got worse\u2019. To me this was such an important learning point, when it comes to change, we often just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen as a result of the thing that we have done.\u00a0\u00a0We can have a good idea of what might happen, but with so many variables at play within a system, as Newton\u2019s third law of motion advises, \u201cfor every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction\u201d so who really knows where that \u2018equal and opposite\u2019 change will manifest.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I participated in the Toyota Kata workshop shortly after I had had a troubling experience with the Ambulance service and, as per usual, whilst encountering a service that wasn\u2019t making the grade, I instantly started identifying all of the things that needed to change. It was interesting to reflect on the \u2018improvement list\u2019 that I had created in light of the kata \u2018tiny steps might make things worse at first\u2019 revelation.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Incident<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My 13 year old stepson fell off a 1m high window ledge whilst snow stenciling Christmas decorations on his classroom window. This happened at 10.30 am, he was screaming in agony and his knee, quite obviously, was misshapen as if something had dislocated.\u00a0\u00a0This happened on the third floor of his school, they had no lift, and he was in so much pain, he couldn\u2019t be moved.\u00a0\u00a0My husband went to be with him and I received regular updates where I could hear him crying out in pain.\u00a0\u00a0I was very surprised when an ambulance hadn\u2019t arrived by lunchtime, so I rang 999 (confident in my assertive and persuasive powers). They took me through a series of questions and said that they\u2019d be there as soon as they could.\u00a0\u00a0After not making a difference, I then rang the GP nearest the school to see if there was anything that they could do. They advised me that it wasn\u2019t their responsibility and to try our GP, so I did, who then advised me that there was nothing that they could do, that this was indeed a 999 call, and that I should try ringing again.\u00a0\u00a0So I rang 999 again.\u00a0\u00a0I also rang a private healthcare provider to see if you could pay for a private ambulance – you can\u2019t. I decided to go to the school myself, stunned that he was still in the same predicament, dislocated, some 4 hours later.\u00a0\u00a0As I arrived at 3pm, I rang 999 again. That\u2019s when I noticed the same questions that the responders went through, the same order, the same final response.\u00a0\u00a0What was really strange was that they always asked for the person\u2019s name at the very end of the questioning? I imagine because this piece of information is the least important in terms of determining urgency and identifying treatment? But as a concerned guardian, this really jarred. Each time I rang, we were advised to not have any food or drink in case of the need of surgery. I commented that if someone didn\u2019t help him soon, he\u2019d be at risk of dehydration. The cycle of desperately looking out of the window for help and ringing 999 continued, until it finally arrived at 6pm, long after the School had shut. The final time I rang I begged them NOT to go through all of the questions, that I had heard them all before, that they were making me furious, but alas, they had to and would not be moved. One responder advised that it was an exceptionally busy day and that all of the ambulances were stuck at the hospital as A&E couldn\u2019t accept their patients. So because A&E couldn’t cope, the Ambulance service was rendered immobile.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When they did arrive, the ambulance ladies were great, gave him \u2018Gas and Air\u2019 which chilled him out sufficiently so that they could put a brace on his leg and his kneecap \u2018popped\u2019 back into place. They also had a wheelchair on rollers that skated downstairs, which was very handy given the three flights we had to get down. Once they helped him, \u2018all was forgiven\u2019 but my head was buzzing about all the things that might have made a difference, baffled about the 7.5 hours of pain our child had just been through. How I thought that there was a system there to help him, but there wasn’t, and how I, as a parent, wasn\u2019t able to help him either.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My ideas:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n