p.1 The focus of this monograph is on a single question,
"What will it take to lead the hospital of today into a sustainable health care enterprise in the future?" ...It defines
organizational success in terms of sustainability. A successful hospital organization will be an organization
able to sustain its mission while enduring the complex challenges of the future.
p.1 In developing an organization that will be durable in the future,
it is helpful to try to anticipate, with as much precision as possible, what the future will look like, then design an organization
with that envisioned future in mind. It is not possible, however, to predict the future with accuracy and specificity.
An organization that will be durable in the future then must be designed based upon the broad dynamics of an anticipated future.
And it will be well designed when it is likely to be sustainable across a variety of futures. So in designing an organization
for sustainability, it is important to ask, "How should we design it so that it will be durable no matter what the
future throws at it?" Or, to use a metaphor, "What kind of ship must we design in order for it to survive the future's
roughest seas?"
p.1 scenario planning, properly applied, asks, "How should we design
ourselves such that we would succeed in a variety of scenarios?"
p.2 We see a hospital in the future as defined less by its physical
and functional characteristics and more by an idea that can be distilled in the following way: "A hospital concentrates,
connects, leverages and applies resources in order to improve the health of individuals and communities."
p.4 Every sustainable organization has a unique core – indeed, it
is the core that a sustainable organization seeks to sustain. The core consists of the organization's fundamental commitments.
The core contains mission or organizational purpose. The core also contains values. Every sustainable organization
has a way of being. This way of being reflects and reinforces the organization's values. It describes the behaviors the organization
expects.
p.26 There is a similar tough-mindedness related to GE's commitment to be able "...to learn from
any source and rapidly convert it to action." What made that work, Welch once observed,
is simple, "Management appraisal systems and management compensation systems."
p.27 All four of these sustainable organizations [Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines,
General Electric] are "passionately" competitive. For those who have spent their careers in hospitals and
other health care organizations, this passionate orientation toward competitiveness is generally foreign. On a scale of one
to ten, we would suggest that the typical American hospital has a competitiveness orientation of around five, while each of
these organizations would be pushing nine or ten.
p.28 "The biggest difference between Wal-Mart and Kmart is that one figured out how to do simple
things extraordinarily well while the other didn't. The magic in getting that done is identify and prioritize
the simple things that matter to consumers." Peter Fine
p.28 At all levels of these four organizations, operations are strategic. They combine
straightforward strategic direction with powerful operations. To achieve powerful operations, these organizations
fundamentally redesigned basic operational cornerstones to yield overwhelming advantages.
p.58 An organization that is fit to survive in an environment of rapidly accelerating change and
complexity clearly must be able to change itself and quickly. This capability will be most necessary at the organization's
interface with the environment.
p.74 Executives deal with the design and execution of strategies. Managers attend to tactics and actions.
p.74 Strategies describe how you intend to win the war. Tactics describe how you intend
to win the battle. Tactics are in service of strategies. And strategies are directly related to the organization's Core Difference.
