Who would have thought…?

that “slash and burn” could become “engage the troops and save?” A 400 bed hospital facility in a major American city needed to cut costs by $13 million over a three year period. The chief hospital administrator had been through this kind of painful exercise many times before. This time he decided it had to be done differently. Not the typical senior management and consultant driven “slash and burn” approach—layoffs with the inevitable consequences on employee morale and patient care. And where, in any case, expense levels would creep back in. This time, Sunshine would be used and the approach, and results, were totally different. “She established a hospital-wide group, tasked with the responsibility of sustaining quality, cutting costs and rethinking all of operations. The group began as strangers and ended as a focused, committed transformational team. They were energized, engaged, and owned the challenge. they became OD experts – janitors, secretaries, physicians, nursing staff et al. they called themselves the DIG Group.. Design Innovation Group.

They came up with 300 ideas, achieved the cost savings and lost no talent in the process. Sunshine taught the group to think throughput® and gave a structure to the strategies they identified. The end result? A more energetic organization, with improved morale, better care and, because of the rapid employee buy-in, huge cost savings that have lasted.”

Think throughput.