Human beings need not apply

http://www.sambasta.com/post/313914021/cleveland-clinics-chief-experience-officer-on-being-a

If you're interested in turning an organization's institutional values into more humane values, check out this 20-minute-plus presentation by Bridget Duffy. She's listed as Chief Experience Officer for the Cleveland Clinic, but checking her background, she's involved in more than that.

The presentation is officially about creating genuinely patient-centered care. She's been thinking very concretely about that and captures a lot of truth about the nature of institutitions in this presentation.

For instance, after sitting in a back corner of her hospital's emergency room observing for some days, she asks, "What's the first thing said to anyone approaching the check-in desk?" At best it's, "What's your name?" More likely it's, "What's your health insurance number?" Is it possible, she asks, that someone approaching the desk could be met with, "Good morning. I see you're in pain. We're going help you with that"?

And she's not just talking scripts. She talking about a entire mindset about "Who is the customer?" The answer she gives: in health care, it's obviously the specialty physicians. They bring in the money. It's for their convenience that everything is organized.

She's not blaming doctors, nurses or administrators. She's talking about a broken system and calling for an entire reconsideration of an institutional viewpoint.

This is not just a question for health care, it's for all organizations. Why do we exist? Who do we really serve? What might real success look like?

Organizations, institutions, companies--they all form around human needs but quickly find their attention turned to organizational needs. This takes constant tending.

Knowing he'd immediately understand, I sent this off to my pastor with the question, "How do we change the way we see our church's mission from institutional to Christian?"

This is good stuff.