A bit of magic for the NHS?

James Gubb, 24 December 2008

Disney is ranked number one in Fortune Magazine’s most admired entertainment industry category for 2008. It was also ranked number three across all US companies for people management and is one of the top performing companies in the world in terms of customer satisfaction. Key to Disney’s success is the clarity of its vision: safety, courtesy, the show and efficiency.

All members of its ‘cast’ attend the Disney University to grow into its culture, with around five per cent of the organisation’s revenue spent on training. This applies to street sweepers as much as managers, thereby creating a sense of value, pride and purpose. The words ‘it’s not my job’ are forbidden. Instead, all staff are encouraged to ‘dream, believe, dare and do’; Disney’s philosophy is based on a belief that the best ideas are generated by those closest to the situations, that each time a front-line employee’s idea is used a culture of creativity and innovation is reinforced.
The same clarity of vision is vital in healthcare, particularly in facilitating effective leadership and teamwork. A particularly interesting example of this in action is the Griffin Hospital in Connecticut, US. In 1980, 30 per cent of the local community said they would avoid at all costs; it was struggling financially; and on every measure was the worst in the area. Then, under the management of Patrick Charmel, it then adopted ‘Disney-like’ principles. Employee pride became the roadmap to patient satisfaction; the resolute focus became patient care from the patient’s perspective; mandatory employee training orientates staff and places them in the experience of being a patient. Griffin Hospital now has patient satisfaction rates of over 95 per cent and is ranked in the top 100 companies in the US to work for.
Crucial to its turnaround was the rallying around a common vision; a vision that is clear and there for all to see on its website, based on Quality and Service, Respect and Dignity, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Stewardship. Its mission statement reads: “Griffin Hospital is committed to providing personalized, humanistic, consumer-driven health care in a healing environment, to empowering individuals to be actively involved in decisions affecting their care and well-being through access to information and education, and to providing leadership to improve the health of the community we serve.”
Few NHS organisations yet have such a resolute focus. Most are stuck in a powerful catch twenty-two, not sure where to turn in the contradictory world of the ‘consumer-focused’ quasi-market and the day-to-day realities of central control.
A challenge for the new year….let’s quit the ‘wait and hope something will happen’ attitude and take control. Could Disney’s magic just work here?