Template Steerco
- Rizka Nugroho
Intoduction
This document aims to outline the current state of the "Quality Improvement Meeting (QIM)".
The QIM was introduced in October to help us be proactive instead of reactive when dealing with operational issues. By fixing the underlying causes of problems, we want to prevent the same issues from happening again and protect our long-term business interests.
After two months of this meeting, we think it hasn't achieved the goals we wanted. So, we made this document to suggest changes that we hope will help us reach the original goals, as well as some extra ones mentioned in section 2 below.
Goal Matrix
ncreased Customer Satisfaction | Reduce repeat issues that cause user frustration |
|---|---|
Correct RCA and Preventive | To ensure correct root cause analysis and implementation of preventive actions |
Introduce Kaizen Mindset | Shape the individuals involved in the RCA process into a Kaizen mindset
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North Star
Customer First | The customer should always be the top priority in every decision |
|---|---|
Factual Information | Every issue must contain precise and comprehensive facts, including a detailed timeline, without making any assumptions |
Efficient Time Usage | The Quality Improvement Meeting (QIM) should strive to be efficient and effective, delivering value to all stakeholders in a timely manner |
Engagement and Buy-In | The QIM should promote active participation and engagement of individuals during discussions |
Kaizen Mindset | Participants should ideally acquire knowledge of Kaizen throughout the process
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State of Business
We started having a meeting every week called Quality Improvement Meeting (QIM) in early October. The goal of this meeting is to talk about our problems and find ways to stop them from happening again in the future.
The meeting uses the following format:
Chika compiled a few issues to be discussed in the meeting and documented them in an Excel Spreadsheet (See Appendix)
Each item was discussed during the meeting with the relevant person in charge (PIC) assigned, and asked about the root cause
The root cause was recorded in the spreadsheet, along with proposed preventive measures
Lesson Learn
The designated person in charge was not determined before the meeting, thus they might not be invited
Many people don't read the Excel file before the meeting. This leads to them attending the meeting without knowing what it's about, which makes them feel confused and uninterested.
Finding the main reason is a detailed and time-consuming process. It requires collecting factual information with an accurate timeline, which cannot be effectively done in the short time of the meeting. People tend to guess, leading us to take the wrong preventive action.
Sometimes, issues involve many departments, which makes it hard to figure out exactly where the collaboration problem happened. It looks like Department A was waiting for Department B, and vice versa
Execution Plan
1. Create a Postmortem Document
For every issue found, we require the PIC to fill in the Postmortem document (See Appendix):
Lead-up | Sequence of events that led to the incident |
|---|---|
Issue | What is not functioning as expected |
Impact | Who is affected (both internally and externally) |
Detection | How was the issue identified |
Response | Who responded to the incident and what actions were taken |
Recovery | Recovery: How the impact on users was mitigated and the incident was resolved |
Timeline | Detailed timeline of the incident (can be left empty if covered by Lead-up) |
Five Whys RCA | Perform a 5 whys analysis to understand the root cause of the incident |
Blameless Corrective | Identify necessary changes, without assigning blame, to prevent future occurrences of this incident |
Related Incident | Check if any previous incidents could have had the same underlying cause. |
Describe any attempted mitigation in those incidents and investigate why this incident happened again. |
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Lessons Learned | What was learned from this incident? |
What aspects went well? |
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What can be improved? |
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Follow-up Tasks | Person In Charge (PIC), Task, and Deadline for any follow up tasks |
Customer First Sanity Checker | A summary in the bottom explaining how the actions in this document represent our “Customer First” mindset. |
This is to ensure that all that we are doing (the How), does not miss the “Customer First” northstar (the What). |
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2. Establish Meeting Cadence Utilising Postmortem Document
Meeting Preparation
A week before the meeting:
Identified issues will be systematically compiled, and respective Persons-in-Charge (PIC) will be assigned.
PICs are expected to diligently engage in fact-gathering activities for a week, followed by populating the postmortem document.
Meeting
In the initial 15-20 minutes, all participants are urged to observe a period of silent reading. This time is designated for individuals to immerse themselves in the contents of the post-mortem documents from the preceding week.
The objectives of this silent period are twofold:
Focused Preparation: Participants are afforded the opportunity to concentrate on upcoming discussions and acquaint themselves with the pertinent issues.
Question Formulation: Participants can utilise this time to formulate thoughtful questions and constructive feedback.
Appendix