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June 2018 Newsletter

Our June Status Quo Breaker is...
Jen Hahn, Information Technology Specialist in Human Resources, is being recognized as our June Status Quo Breaker! Through Jen's leadership, the Human Resources department is over 90% paperless. This transition from paper to electronic has provided the opportunity to review and revise each process for efficiency so that the fewest number of actions are needed by those involved. In addition, each HR transaction now has an electronic footprint that can be monitored and easily communicated. Her talents have helped make processes such as new employee orientation, new position requisitions, hiring, and staff transfers seamless and transparent. Excellent work, Jen!
The Status Quo Breaker is a monthly traveling trophy recognition of an employee for their contribution to process improvement, to say thank you for being Lean and/or for helping make DMPS Leaner.
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Affinity Relations Diagram
An affinity relations diagram allows groups of people to identify and sort ideas into like categories and then study the cause and effect of relationships amongst the categories. You can utilize this tool to determine root cause of a problem, rank solutions, and prioritize work. You can also use the tools separately, just the affinity diagram or just the relations diagram.
During the Lean Tools for Education session at TechCon2018, attendees first generated ideas to the question, "What ways have you or will you incorporate technology into your classroom or school?" Those ideas were affinitized into five categories, Learning Management System, Tools, Data, Equipment and Communication. Lastly, the attendees studied the relationship between the categories and determined student need (data) must drive the technology implemented.

Lean Training in Canvas
Interested in Lean? Not able to attend classroom training? We have you covered. There is now a Lean Canvas course! Register for Leaner Everyday! at https://dmschools.instructure.com/enroll/J9A3GC. The course will introduce you to Lean principles, methodology, tools and terminology. Please reach out to Emma Knapp with any questions or if you have technical difficulties.
Time to Celebrate!
94 improvement projects were completed in 2017-2018. This could not have happened without the dedication of staff identifying wastes (non-valued added tasks) within processes and setting out to improve productivity, quality, and customer service. Thank you so much for being #LeanerEveryday!
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Shout Outs!

Thank you Katie Shearer, Lisa Irey, Connie Broich, Dan Sloan and Dan Warren for committing time to being part of the Technology Lean Steering Committee and holding regular check-ins to monitor progress on IT Lean projects!
Thank you to all those who attended Lean Tools for Education at TechCon2018!
Awesome job Nicole Lee, Naki Allen, Mike Boyle, Colleen Christensen, Lillie Nolan, Eric Whitney, Denise Johnson, Robert Lacy and Shelia Mason for removing wait time from a couple Classified processes!
Way to go Crissa Vander Zyl for 5Sing Stowe's LLI kits!

Past Newsletters

March 2016
April 2016
May 2016
June 2016
July 2016
August 2016
September 2016
October 2016
November 2016
December 2016
January 2017
February 2017
March 2017
April 2017
May 2017
June 2017
July 2017
August 2017
September 2017
October 2017
November 2017
December 2017
January 2018
February 2018
March 2018
April 2018
May 2018
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Des Moines Public Schools
Continuous Improvement
1000 Porter Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50315