Catchball is part of the strategic planning process where all YKHC employees generate ideas and align the work in their departments with the organization’s goals.

Strategic planning is an annual process where YKHC conducts an environmental scan and gathers customer feedback to shape the goals and priorities for the upcoming year. After the priorities are drafted, YKHC leadership engage with team members in an initial catchball through interviews and conversation about the draft goals. The feedback that team members provide is then incorporated into the draft and a second round of catchball occurs with the rest of the organization through surveys to present the drafted goals and create alignment through input.

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The goal of the Angyaq Quality System (AQS) is to increase the patient and employee experience by engaging employees in improving quality. Most people agree this is a worthwhile endeavor and can see how the AQS system can help us on our mission: Working together to achieve excellent health.

However, all the new vocabulary around AQS can be daunting. It can sometimes feel like learning a new language.

The reason AQS introduces new language is because AQS systems (based on Lean principles originated by Toyota and widely adopted in healthcare) are different from the traditional ways of doing business. These new words describe processes and events that simply don’t exist outside of an organization embracing Lean principles. 

“This new language helps to stimulate the thinking of people and reinforce the change that is happening, challenging the existing paradigms and breaking the status quo,” explains one expert.

Most people will pick up new terms along the way. However, to help, we highlight a new word each month.