Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny

For example, healthcare safety expert Dr. Don Berwick once taught at a Harvard seminar for CEOs of some of the largest hospital systems in the world. The list of attendees was a literal Who’s Who of patient safety. These leaders were sipping lattes, jotting notes, and in other ways having a delightful seminar experience as they examined ways to improve the overall healthcare experience—including eliminating costly hospital errors. And although it was a stimulating intellectual experience, Berwick had seen this happen so many times before that he knew the stimulating-lecture format would influence no one. All would return home, say they had a great time, e-mail their notes to their management team, and generate no real change. “Then I had an idea,” Dr. Berwick told us. “On the spur of the moment. I said, ‘Look, before you come to the session next month, find an injured patient, someone who was harmed while in your hospital. And you investigate the injury. Do not delegate it. You find out what happened and come back and report it.’” Berwick was unsure what would happen. Would the CEOs complete the assignment? Would they return with diagrams or data dumps? Or would it awaken passion? Berwick’s answer was emphatic: “Unbelievable!” he said. “I didn’t know this would happen, but these people came back—I’m talking three-piece suit, high-end executives—and one by one they choked up and cried as they told their stories. They described the illusions they had about their systems and ...