Lessons from Global Health Development: Harnessing Methods of Change
By Rob Thames
This is Part 3A of this three-part series.
This Part 3A briefly reviews four change methods and Part 3B will compare them.
“I have no idea how to change anyone. But I carry around a long list of people in case I ever figure out how.” - Anonymous
Eliminate four billion dollars of waste from a large healthcare system next year. Increase the CMS TPS (Total Performance Score) for a hospital from the national average of 38.1 to 60 in two years. Reduce maternal, child and infant mortality in Nigeria by 50% in three years. These are large-scale improvement goals – at healthcare system, hospital and population health levels, respectively.
Improvement at the community, organization and individual levels are all connected: improvement requires change and all change is personal. An organization is a group of people with a common purpose; and a community is a group of people with the potential for acting together (Taylor). While communities and organizations are made up of individuals, how they evolve and change is not merely an additive process of how each individual changes. Societies and organizations are complex adapting systems and their advancement matures through their disciplined movement. Read Full Article.
