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Frequently, clients will ask questions such as these: “What is it that high-performing organizations are doing to improve?” “What best practice should we implement?” “What are other organizations like ours doing to get better?” There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but increasingly I’m drawn to an underlying thread that seems to unlock one of the secrets of performance improvement: High-performing organizations and those that are able to improve at a faster rate are comfortable with the ...

Earlier this week I heard the news that there would be no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security payments this year. The government calculus is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which doesn’t reflect the spending patterns of seniors, especially for health care. With parents and in-laws in their early 70s who rely on Social Security for daily expenses, I am left to wonder if anyone in Washington has had to make the kinds of choices ...

Recognizing excellent performance is the foundation for a high-performing organization. What is recognized (or not recognized) determines, in large part, how employees behave. How employees behave directly affects perceptions of service and quality, and that impacts patient loyalty. With so much riding on recognition of excellent performance, organizations need to recommit and refocus their efforts so that they are promoting a high-performing, quality-focused workforce.

The question “Excellent performance is recognized here” is the No. 1 ...