by Christopher Cornue

As part of an ongoing series reviewing my first 100 days as a CEO, I spent the first 45 to 60 days assessing the current culture, operations, strategy and environment at my new hospital. My initial (and lasting) assessment: I'm working for a wonderful group of individuals--the employees, physicians, board, community, etc.--everyone has been so welcoming and positive!

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by Christopher Cornue

Nick Jacobs recently wrote about what he will miss as a hospital CEO and, like most of you, I enjoyed reading about his final thoughts as he leaves his current role.

At the same time Nick is leaving his CEO role, I've had the opportunity, as some of you may know, to start a role as CEO. In September 2008, I started as the CEO of a hospital in Colorado. Now, I've read up on the "First 100 Days" literature, planned an approach to those first few days, and worked to identify what my leadership will look like. Still, while all of this has been done with the best intentions, no amount of preparation can adequately prepare one completely for assuming a CEO role.

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by Nick Jacobs

Periodically, I write about articles that have appeared in Modern Healthcare; one of my favorite writers is Charles Lauer, former VP- publishing and editorial director of the magazine. The sweet irony of his most recent article, "Growing Evidence, Studies show the therapeutic value of healing gardens" was difficult for me to express.

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Book Review: If Disney Ran Your Hospital, by Fred Lee (5 out of 5)
This book is the "Space Mountain" of hospital management books

Many of you have been following my 8-part series on Fred Lee's book, If Disney Ran Your Hospital.

(adapted from the review I wrote on amazon.com)
Like many Disney rides, you have to wait a bit to get this book on amazon (I purchased mine directly from the publisher). But it's worth the wait. I attended the ACHE Conference in 3/2005 where the book was named the "2005 Book of the Year."

Fred Lee has written a fantastic book in "If Disney Ran Your Hospital." Not only is it a well-written book (Lee uses memorable examples, stories, and graphs to illustrate his points), but also he has chosen an outstanding topic. We need more books like this - learning from the best from other industries. Lee effectively builds the bridge, taking Disney corporate realities and turning them into approaches and strategies that hospital leaders can easily digest and apply in their hospitals.

Some of the concepts definitely stretch my current mindset on customer service (and after reading the book, you might even stop using that term). Lee talks about why perceptions are more important than reality, patient loyalty is more important than satisfaction, courtesy is more important than efficiency, and experience is more important than service. He also spends some time addressing the shortfalls of patient satisfaction surveys and competitive incentives for employees. All for the sake of his true focus of the book: to "bring out the best behaviors in workers and provide the best emotional experience for patients."

For those that are experts in services marketing or world-class hotel corporate culture, some of the concepts will be old news. Nonetheless, the way Lee specifically applies these concepts to the hospital setting is truly magical and novel.

Book Review: Winning by Jack Welch (4 out of 5)
this time Welch nails it

Many of you have been following my leadership series from Welch's new book, based on the Newsweek excerpt. Turns out the rest of the book is just as good as the excerpt on leadership that I covered in depth.

It appears that (after a couple of misfires) Jack Welch has finally written a book to match his legend. It probably also helps that his new wife Suzy (and co-author), a former editor at HBR, knows a thing or two about writing. No matter what you think of either Welch (to put it mildly, they're controversial), this book is worth the price of admission.

Put "Winning" on the top shelf next to "Good to Great" and "Built to Last." In fact, Welch's "Winning" is the perfect complement to Jim Collins' two-some. Collins' work is dramatically research-based, Welch's is utterly life-based. In particular, I enjoyed his 8 leadership principles that balance soft skills (communicating vision, building trust, motivating others) and character attributes (making the tough call, being positive, being nurturing to the core). I also enjoyed how Welch answers his critics on the infamous 20-70-10 rule and his hiring frameworks.

One strength of "Winning" is in the breadth of topics covered - both in the realm of organizational leadership as well as career development. Lots of books do one well, but Welch manages to excel in both without being superficial or glossying-over (though most other books aren't 350+ pages!).

Make no mistake about it - the ideas presented are not new. For example, two of Welch's leadership principles: "exude positive energy" and "push and probe with a curiousity that borders on skepticism" sound a lot like Collins' "confront the brutal facts, yet never lose faith" principle. But it's Welch's down-to-earth writing style that helps you understand these timeless principles in a fresh way. As you're reading, you can almost picture him speaking the words in some business school auditorium or some Fortune 100 management retreat. The words are deceptively simplistic, but it's Welch's wisdom at its best - boiled down to the very essence from four decades of rough-and-tumble managerial experience.