Interesting and Related Articles & Web Sites...

Interesting sites

www.BrokenWindows.com
This website is for people who have read the book Broken Windows, Broken Businesses by Michael Levine and want more illustrations of companies which ignore the small stuff at their own peril.

www.carrots.com Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, authors of Managing With Carrots and A Carrot A Day are zealous about using praise and recognition to retain the best people in an organization and to meet organizational goals. This website introduces you to their writings and allows you to sign up for a monthly e-newsletter, too.

www.ideo.com IDEO has been on the cutting edge of design for over a decade. Explore this website to get an idea of the extent of IDEO's innovation and creativity, and maybe even be inspired yourself.

www.crucialconfrontations.com The companion website to Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler where you can find a wealth of additional information including videos illustrating good and bad confrontations as well as self-assessments to quantify just how good-or bad-you are at confronting others.

www.ihi.org The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, familiar to many health care professionals, promotes excellence in patient care. See what's new at IHI.

www.gladwell.com Malcolm Gladwell is author of The Tipping Point and Blink. His website contains commentaries and exerpts from his books as well as articles he's written forThe New Yorker magazine. Anything written by Gladwell is a must-read!

www.sethgodin.com Seth Godin is an author and self-described "agent of change". Check out his website and blog for a wide assortment of interesting, funny, and provocative articles, interviews, and opinions.

Articles

Seven Reasons to Dictate in the Presence of Your Patients Peter Teichman's article in the American Academy of Family Physician journal Family Practice Management gives seven compelling reasons to adopt this practice.

The Power of Design IDEO has been on the cutting edge of design for over a decade in its innovative approaches to people, products, and even the way companies work. Read this article from Business Week and be inspired by IDEO's creativity, passion, versatility, and brilliance.

The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated? Malcolm Gladwell writes in the New Yorker about hiring and what makes talent...well, talented? This is a thought provoking article for everyone, but especially for human resource managers. Give Gladwell a chance; he's a brilliant link to fresh thinking.

Improving Patient Communication in No Time. Ellen J. Belzer, MPA
Practice Management published this practical article on how to communicate effectively with patients. This is a great tool for providers in all types of clinics. Share it with your favorite provider today!

Reducing Waits and Delays in the Referral Process. Mark Murray, MD, MPA
Murray teaches readers how to develop and leverage relationships with other practices in order to make referral systems work better for both offices and patients. This is a great article for operations managers looking to improve their referral systems.

The Digital Hospital Business Week's article on technology in healthcare will both motivate and inspire you. See what Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J. is doing with technology to save both money and lives. Maybe advances in technology are closer to you than you think.

Some Interesting Reading...

Broken Windows Broken Businesses. Michael Levine says "There is nothing worse for business than disappointing a customer." When small things don’t work—a stained carpet in the waiting room or dirty restrooms—then the bigger things probably don’t work either. The worst broken windows are often broken people—people who treat customers badly, or who are clearly incompetent but still remain in place, causing anger and resentment among those who have to work with them, and causing customers to think twice about patronizing that business. Leaders who ignore broken windows, says Levine, will never build a truly great organization.

Managing With Carrots and the companion book, A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chelster Elton are two books which will help you realize the importance of recognition in retaining your best staff and meeting your organization's goals.

The Reengineering Revolution: A Handbook. Michael Hammer and Steven A. Stanton. Although written as a result of Hammer's experience with Fortune 500 companies, this book contains a wealth of information and ideas that are readily applicable to health care. This is a guide to taking action-"a handbook, a tool kit, a compendium of techniques and tricks of the trade for addressing the key issues and problems that a reengineering effort will confront." We love it and highly recommend it.

Crucial Confrontations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. Never avoid another conflict again, advise the authors of the earlier best-seller Crucial Conversations. Crucial confrontations are face-to-face accountability session that takes place because someone has let you down, failed to live up to expectations, or violated a promise made. Rather than suffering in silence or resorting to sarcasm or angry eruptions, we can have open and honest discussions with people who have let us down-and handle these discussions well.

Crucial Conversations. Tools for Talking when Stakes are High. Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler. When confronted with difficult conversations, there are three ways to react: "We can avoid them. We can face them and handle them poorly. We can face them and handle them well." This book teaches crucial skills that anyone can learn to be better equipped to handle problematic situations.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Patrick Lencioni. Lencioni is brilliant in this management fable about diagnosing and curing teams of their biggest barrier...themselves. This book is so practical and down-to-earth, it's inspiring even in its opening pages. It's an essential resource for managers who strive to develop a healthy team. It's not a question of whether you have these dysfunctions: it's a question of to what degree. Lencioni will teach you how to identify them-and deal with them.

Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions: A Field Guide. Patrick Lencioni. If you liked Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, you'll love this guide. This book is a response to Lencioni's readers who wanted to "find out how they could better understand and apply the concepts", and it's filled with practical advice and exercises to enable you to overcome these common problems.

Death by Meeting. A Leadership Fable. Patrick Lencioni. You'll never have the same attitude toward meetings again after you read this book. Full of practical solutions, this book dissects the best ways to solve the most boring part of your work life....meetings. Learn how to make the most of the time spent in meetings, and how to make meetings productive and effective.

The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference. Malcolm Gladwell. Why do human beings behave the way they do? Gladwell engagingly explains how just a few people can have dramatic impact on society. He makes a compelling argument that the spread of change occurs the same way epidemics do. This is an important book for anyone wanting to understand how to influence behavior.

Complications. Atul Gawande. Gawande, a physician, eloquently exposes the flaws in the way medicine is practiced. This New York Times Notable Book and National Bestseller is a gripping account of actual cases Gawande was involved with in his surgical residency and gives an insightful understanding of medical training.

Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service. Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. Blanchard and Bowles continue to create with this book. It's a clearly written, fictional story which will inspire managers and front line staff to exceed their customers' expectations. Raving Fans can have a long term impact on staff and how they see their relationship to their job and their customers.

Who Moved my Cheese? Spencer Johnson, MD. A bestselling fable which teaches a critical lesson in how to deal with change. It's an easy story to relate to and can be read in an hour or two. It's a must-read for middle managers as well as anyone who doesn't understand why the status quo can't be maintained forever.

Workplace by Design. Franklin Becker and Fritz Steele. The authors describe the relationship between good facility design and high performance. This is a great handbook for anyone looking to improve their work space.