A Leap Into Uncertainty
No one would have guessed that courage would be the central job requirement in the application of complexity theory to the creation of better health care services.
A story from: HealthEast, Greenville, N.C.
A story by: David Hutchens
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Cascades Of Connection: The Case Of Charity Care
A powerful tale of an emerging relationship between a hospital and its community - developed by employees dedicated to building connections with area residents and given the freedom to do so.
A story from: Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, Plainfield, NJ.
A story by: Birute Regine and Roger Lewin
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Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are
Hospital acquired infections are a serious and growing threat to patients. Read about the successful efforts of one hospital, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, to stem the tide of infections using a social change process called Positive Deviance. This process fosters engagement of staff at all levels and builds on what is working.
The authors of this story, one in a new series of Plexus publications called Deeper Learning, are the distinguished communications scholar Arvind Singhal, PhD, Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Professor, University of Texas El Paso, Karen Greiner, a PhD student at Ohio University, and Prucia Buscell, Plexus Publications Editor.
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Growing A Stroke Center Chunk By Chunk
Learn about the creation of a world class stroke program and how new connections, diversity, experimentation and the lack of an overall grand plan fostered self-organization and emergence.
A story from: Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, MO.
A story by: Ken Baskin, Jeffrey Goldstein, and Curt Lindberg.
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Hunterdon Medical Center: Critical Mass and Emergence of the Goddess
Learn about the diffusion of complexity understanding and practices in this New Jersey hospital, and witness the results.
A story from: Linda Rusch
A story by: Birute Regine.
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Jim Taylor: Trojan Horse with a Bow Tie
Explore the story of a hospital CEO committed to bringing complexity-inspired leadership approaches into a hospital used to a different, more conventional management.
A story from: University of Louisville Hospital, Louisville, KY.
A story by: Birute Regine and Roger Lewin
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Make It Happen, or Let It Happen? A Case Study of Strategy at Federal Metals
Story of a company which created a complexity-informed approach to planing and strategy making.
A story about: Federal Metals
A story by: Brenda Zimmerman
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Merging, De-merging, and Emerging at the Deaconess Billings Clinic
A heartening story about the merger of a large physician group practice and a hospital and the various attempts to create a genuine health care system.
The creative potential of paradox and difference are highlighted.
A story from: Deaconess Billings Clinic, Billings, MT.
A story by: Ken Baskin, Jeff Goldstein, and Curt Lindberg
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More We Than Me
Hospital acquired infections are a serious and growing threat to patients. Read about the successful efforts of one hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center, to employ the Positive Deviance change process to reduce MRSA infections. This process fosters engagement and ownership by staff at all levels to create new solutions, build on old ones, and spread what is working throughout the organization. The author of this story, one in a new series of Plexus publications called Deeper Learning, is Prucia Buscell, Plexus Publications Editor. .
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Nonlinear Conversations
Complex interactions through nonlinear conversations. The author, a physician, proposes an alternative to the traditional medical interview, rethinking the patient-physician relationship and focusing on the nature of the interaction.
A story by Robert Lindberg, MD
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Pitt County Memorial Hospital: Weathering and Weaving: Lessons from the Trenches
Read the remarkable story of creativity in the face of a crisis. Hurricane Floyd hits eastern North Carolina and the people of Pitt County Memorial Hospital respond for their patients and communities.
A story from: Pitt County Memorial Hospital, Greenville, NC
A story by: Roger Lewin and Birute Regine.
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The Practice of Medicine is in the Interactions: A Day with Robert A. Lindberg, M.D.
A story by a distinguished communications scholar about the complexity science-inspired internal medicine practice of Robert Lindberg. MD. Learn about the ideas and thinking behind this innovative approach to the practice of medicine and care of patients. The author is Arvind Singhal, PhD, Professor and Presidential Research Scholar in the School of Communication Studies, Ohio University. Robert Lindberg and Arvind Singhal are members of the Science Advisory Board of Plexus Institute. .
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Third possibility leaders: The invisible edge women have in complex organizations
A core property of complex adaptive systems is the emergence of shifting, hard (or impossible) to predict outcomes. Business organizations (indeed, all human organizations) are complex adaptive systems. The traditional command-and-control, mechanistic style of management is ill-suited to such systems, and inevitably will impair their efficacy, in terms of creativity and adaptability. In an earlier study we asked the question, "What, in human terms, is the key to organizations whose management style is guided by certain principles of complexity science?" These principles included being organizationally flat, valuing diversity, and encouraging open communication. We did extensive interviews with, usually, a cross section of people in a dozen companies in Europe and the United States. We listened for what people valued in their day-to-day interactions in the workplace, and what they identified as being most effective in enhancing their organizations as learning systems..
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Too Beautiful
This is a story about how my family used concepts inspired by complexity
science to inform how we worked to make the last days of my father comfortable, free of pain, and full with dignity, meaning, and love. Using such complexity ideas as self-organization, nonlinearity, information flow and feedback, diversity of agents, and simple rules, my brothers, sister and
I created several organizing principles to guide our efforts.
They included: honor the guidance Mom and Dad had provided us; stay in touch
and share lots of information; use the wisdom and diverse skills and insights in the family; take baby steps, see how they work and adjust quickly; and provide whatever stability and certainty we could.
Together we helped our father experience a "good death", an experience full of little miracles. "I am leaving under the circumstances everyone wishes for," he told us as he passed away.
A story by: Curt Lindberg
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Trust is the Lubricant of Organizational Life
Read about how Henri Lipmanowicz thinks about leadership and complexity science. His approach to leadership and his understanding of life in organizations are illuminated by memorable stories from his successful career at Merck and his work as with Plexus Institute, where he serves as Chair of the Board. The author of this story, the first in a new series of Plexus publications called Deeper Learning, Arvind Singhal, PhD, is Samuel Shirley and Edna Holt Marston Professor, Department of Communications, University of Texas El Paso.
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Unleashing People Potential: When trouble makers become superstars
Personal and professional growth results when people are unleashed and a task force is charged with improving the system for initial hospital care...they do so using a complexity approach...and achieve some breakthroughs in patient care.
A story from: Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, Plainfield, NJ.
A story by: Birute Regine and Roger Lewin
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Where's the Care?
This story recounts the experience at a fall 2004 workshop sponsored by Plexus Institute - Creating Healthcare Organizations Where Nurses Thrive. The workshop was hosted by Hunterdon Medical Center; the story was written by Roger Lewin and Birute Regine..
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Which Nursing Home Would You Put Your Mother In?
The full title of this story is - "Which Nursing Home Would You Put Your Mother In?" A Conversation with Complexity Scholars Reuben McDaniel, Jr. and Ruth Anderson
This story by noted communications scholar Arvind Singhal chronicles the scholarship and research of two pioneers in complexity science and healthcare management and quality - Ruth Anderson and Reuben McDaniel..
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Wizards and CEOs: The Oz Factor
Get inside the story of a CEOs attempt to "let go" and embrace a complexity way of leading and witness the resulting organizational change. Insights are drawn from the delightful metaphor - The Wizard of Oz -
A story from John R. Kopicki, President and CEO, Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, Plainfield, NJ.
A story by: Birute Regine and Roger Lewin
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Worldwide Complexity: Strategic Planning for a Non-Profit Healthcare Organization
A "non-business" plan approach, inspired by complexity, to building international relationships for improving health care.
A story from: Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Boston, MA.
A story by: Paul Plsek
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