What is rapid cycle? Rapid cycle is the use of standard quality tools with skilled facilitators to achieve breakthrough improvements in performance within a rapid time frame. Many of us who have been in the “quality business” a long time remember our first introduction to Deming, Total Quality Management and the Shewhart cycle: Plan-Do-Study-Act. At that time, we formed project teams to achieve breakthrough improvement. We assigned a team; we met, we identified issues; we met, we completed a flow analysis; we met, we identified data sources; we met, we identified measures of success; we collected mounds of data; and so on. Along the way, we lost team members and possibly gained a few. If we were lucky, 10 months later we had an improvement plan. Then it was time to pilot, measure, and implement success.