Lean for Haiti

Yesterday, marked the 1st anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010.  My friend and fellow Lean Blogger Mark Graban has a new project to spread Lean Thinking, a volunteer's personal story of supporting Haiti in the aftermath, and the awareness of Haiti relief needs. 

The project is Lean for Haiti.  In the truest sense of Lean it is sharing best practices for the greater good.  A lesson I think we all need to be reminded of.  Lean has helped so many organizations.  Now it is time to give a little back. Mark explains the project:

Last year, I was fortunate to meet a special person - Russell Maroni, an x-ray tech at Akron Children's Hospital. He volunteered in Haiti for 15 days in February 2010 as part of the earthquake relief efforts. He was unexpectedly, and necessarily, pressed into service in a medical role, not only caring for patients, but also using his formal lean training from ACH to help improve processes and radiology patient throughput at a field hospital.

Russell wrote a very compelling, and very personal, journal during his time in Haiti. He and his colleagues took many pictures. We are sharing this all in a PDF eBook that we are freely distributing - to share the story and to create awareness for Haiti relief needs. We are asking people who read the book to consider donating to the Friends of the Orphans, which runs an orphanage in Haiti.

The journal isn't mainly a "lean story," although it does include his hand-drawn A3 plan. It's a very personal story, of his own prayer and contemplation of the trip, and his experiences in the midst of that tragedy.

When you go to http://www.leanforhaiti.org/ you can find a pdf of the journal.  It has a great example of using Lean Thinking in the form of using an A3 to solve a problem.  In this case how to increase patient turnover and x-ray film quality. 

The real goal of this project is to raise some much needed funds to help Haiti recover.  To support the relief and rebuilding effort of Haiti you can donate to this project's charity Friends of the Orphans.

Help spread the word for the worthy cause by connecting with Lean For Haiti's facebook page, twitter @Lean4Haiti, and feed.


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