READ CASE BELOW, and answer the question:

What are your thoughts about focusing on updating the strategy, mission and values to reflect a focus on customer satisfaction and employee performance? Can the SHS leadership successfully implement a plan that focuses on employees and customers at the same time?

THE SULLIVAN HOSPITAL SYSTEM PART I

At the Sullivan Hospital System (SHS), CEO Ken Bonnet expressed concern over market share losses to other local hospitals over the past six to nine months and declines in patient satisfac-tion measures. To him and his senior adminis-trators, the need to revise the SHS organization was clear. It was also clear that such a change would require the enthusiastic participation of all organizational members, including nurses, physicians, and managers. At SHS, the senior team consisted of the

top administrative teams from the two hospi-tals in the system. Bonnet, CEO of the system and president of the larger of the two hospitals, was joined by Sue Strasburg, president of the smaller hospital. Their two styles were consid-erably different. Whereas Bonnet was calm, confident, and mild-mannered, Strasburg was assertive, enthusiastic, and energetic. Despite these differences, both administrators demon-strated a willingness to lead the change effort. In addition, each of their direct reports was clearly excited about initiating a change pro-cess and was clearly taking whatever initiative Bonnet and Strasburg would allow or empower them to do. You were contacted by Bonnet to conduct

a three-day retreat with the combined manage-ment teams and kick off the change process. Based on conversations with administrators from other hospitals and industry conferences, the team believed that the system needed a major overhaul of its Total Quality Management (TQM) process for two primary reasons. First, they believed that an improved patient care process would give physicians a good reason to use the hospital, thus improving market share. Second, although the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) had enacted policies some time ago encouraging hospitals to adopt continuous improvement principles, SHSs system was sorely behind the times. The team readily agreed that they lacked the adequate skills and knowledge associated with implementing a more sophisticated TQM process. This first meeting was to gather together

to hear about how TQM, engagement, and other strategic change processes had advanced and the issues that would need to be addressed if more sophisticated processes were to be imple-mented. During the meeting, you guided them through several exercises to get the team to examine methods of decision making and how team-based problem solving had advanced, and explored their understanding of the hospitals current mission, goals, and strategies. Although you were concerned about start-ing the process with a workshop that explored a solution rather than understanding the problem, you remembered Roger Harrisons consulting rule, Start where your client is at, and agreed to conduct the workshop. You were assured by Bonnet that the hospital system was commit-ted to making substantive changes and that this was only the first step. In addition, and in support of this commitment, Bonnet told you that he had already agreed in principle to begin a work redesign process in a few of the nursing units at each hospital and had begun to finalize a contract with a large consulting firm to do the work. The workshop was highly praised and you convinced the team to hold off on the work design implementation long enough to conduct a diagnosis of the system. Following the retreat, your diagnosis of the

SHS organization employed a variety of data collection activities including interviews with senior managers from both hospitals as well as a sampling of middle managers and staff (for example, nurses, ancillary professionals, and environmental services providers). Questions about the hospitals mission garnered the most consensus and passion. There was almost unan-imous commitment to the breadth of services provided and the values that played a promi-nent role in the delivery of those services by a Catholic-sponsored health care organization, such as SHS. A mission and values statement was clearly posted throughout the hospital and many of the items in that statement were repeated almost verbatim in the interviews.