Book Review: Hardwiring Excellence by Quint Studer(5 out of 5)
Clear, Inspirational, and Thought-Provoking

Quint Studer ain't your ordinary hospital consultant. In fact, he probably wouldn't call himself a consultant at all; he's a "Fire Starter" and a "Coach." From a high school GPA of 1.3 to Special Ed teacher to hospital President to Founder of the Studer Group, this man has a genuine passion to make a difference in healthcare and on society. In his first COO role at Holy Cross Hospital, he took his hospital's patient sat scores from 5% to 94% in one year. At his first Administrator position in Baptist Hospital, he decreased employee turnover from 30% to 12% and also founded the Baptist Leadership Institute. It's hard to argue with results like that.

The basis of his book and his work is this flywheel:

which is essentially a much more thoughtful way of saying "success breeds success." Start with passion - a passion for what you do, a passion for making people's lives better (lots of folks take this step for granted). Then implement their 9 principles (the book dedicates one chapter for each principle). And these principles lead to results in the most important areas - the pillars: people, service, quality, finance, and growth (can anyone say "balanced scorecard?"). This in turn leads to more passion, and momentum starts kickin' in. And all of this is founded on the fact that when people are given a worthwhile purpose, watch out what they can do.

In my view, this book is well-balanced between motivation and practical to-do's. In fact, I think the magic of this book is how well Quint covers both issues: the heart (the emotions/psychology, human nature) and the mind (hard-nosed focus on hard-core results). I think most hospital leaders could pick up this book and actually put some or all of the principles into practice, even in difficult working environments. And that is exactly Quint's intent.