The Forest for the TRIZ

I just finished taking a class on TRIZ (Russian acronym for Theoria Resheneyva Isobretatelskehuh Zadach).  TRIZ (pronounced TREES) is a robust creative problem solving methodology developed by Genrich Altshuller in the 1950s. 

This process has been used extensively in many industries for innovative problem solving, new product/service development, creating and improving systems, capturing cost savings, boosting productivity and developing breakthrough technology.  It has not- surprise, surprise, been used to any great extent in healthcare.  I think it has tremendous potential and I'm looking for an opportunity to apply some of the concepts I've learned. 

Two quotes our instructor shared on the last day of class are the following:

“The worst sin of all is to do an excellent job at that which should not have been done at all”   --NY Times, anonymous

“We never have time to do it right, but we always have time (and money!) to do it over.”    -- Anonymous.

When I saw these quotes, I immediately thought of healthcare.  The first and most critical step of TRIZ is to define the problem.  If you don't take the time to get that part right, you'll be forever doing it over or worse still, working on the wrong thing altogether! 

I think we're continually doing things over in healthcare either working on the wrong problems or creating the same problems, making the same mistakes because we haven't taken the time to properly identify and define the problems in the first place.   Society is definitely paying the price. 

Altshuller developed the TRIZ methodology after he studied thousands and thousands of patents and discovered that there are really only a limited number of prinicples (about 40) involved in all of them.  According the Altshuller there is already an answer to every problem in existence, all one has to do is take existing knowledge and apply it differently.  The TRIZ methodology is a systematic way to innovate new solutions based on priniciples that have already been thought through.

I was attending a course at the American College of Physician Executives a couple of years ago.  I asked another participant attending a different course whether he was getting anything out of it.  He said, "Well, it would be a lot better if they would stop wasting our time giving us case studies on non-healthcare companies." 

When will we get it?  What is it about us docs that we feel compelled to continually reinvent the wheel (or just stick with the same old wheel we've been using) despite the fact that the wheels we develop aren't working anyway?  TRIZ is just one of the excellent methodologies that have been proven to be effective in other industries.  Anyone interested in learning more?

 

Comments

[mourad]

Really,I was very surprised by your course TRIZ.It seems a powerful method of solving problems.

Could you fancy give me handouts or lecture notes concerning TRIZ.

I would be very grateful to you, Certainly it will be a great help for me to solve my problems.

THANKS.

[martin]

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has a modest TRIZ website at http://www.imeche.org.uk/manufacturing/triz.asp