Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny

What happened here? Like all of our influencers, Berwick operated on the belief that the problem with these leaders was not some moral deficiency. These were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters—all of whom were capable of caring about human pain and suffering. However, the healthcare world around them shielded them from the human pain and suffering caused by the current behavior of their employees. Pain, suffering, and depravation had been turned into numbers, statistics, and charts—which sometimes inform but never inspire. So what did Berwick do? Dr. Berwick trusted that if he set senior leaders loose inside an experience that would allow them to connect with the human consequences of their hospital’s current behavior, they would truly care. Transform numbers into names, statistics, faces, and charts into human conditions, and everything would change. What seemed like an interesting abstraction would become a moral imperative. And it did.