by Tony Chen

One of the key perspectives I've learning about as I read through Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic is to "act like a small organization even when you're a large one."

This is quite a task, given how huge Mayo is as a clinic. Think about how impersonal the service could be, how thick their policy book could be, how much bureaucracy there could be. So why doesn't it feel like a mammoth clinic to patients? It is because they allow, and in fact empower, everyone to relate to patients personally, respecting each one's individuality and uniqueness.

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Think about any random patient that goes through the Mayo system. Their entire impression of Mayo is essentially shaped by the six, maybe 10, people they interface with. Mayo's culture is such that these employees are "boundary-less"--they are not tied to their silos. They are willing and encouraged to step out of their org chart to help the individual patient through any means possible. In this way, they pool their talent, energy and skills together so that each patient has a memorable, personal experience.

The analogy I heard the authors provide is this: Does our hospital function more like a mall (a big building full of independent businesses) or a department store (seamless transitions from one area to the next)? The more we're like malls, the more quickly the experience for patients becomes impersonal and disjointed.

So how do you achieve a department-store like boundary-less teamwork culture? It's not easy. Without such a culture ingrained from the very start, hospitals tend to hire a lot of talented people who may not ever fit in to this culture. Sometimes I wonder if it's even achievable or worth pursuing.

Still, at the end of the day, I believe that most organizations will want to go this way for two reasons:
1. It leads to highly loyal patients.
2. It leads to highly loyal physicians and employees (they get to practice medicine in a way that aligns with why they pursued medicine in the first place).

For more on how to change organizational culture, check out my previous posts on being a change agent.

Also check out previous posts on great service providers like Southwest Airlines or Disney. What all great service providers have in common is that distinctive culture that has a laser sharp focus on the customer. That culture leads them to do thousands of little things just slightly differently, which ultimately adds up to an experience customers likely will talk about for years.