Book Reviews by Lynne Cunningham

2009

As another year is wrapping up, it's time to reflect, take stock of all of our blessings, determine how not to make the same mistakes again, and hold our heads high as we get ready for a New Year. It's been a busy year for reading. Fire Starter Publishing had a banner year and there were many additional books that made it to my reading list in 2009. I read 43 business books this year and found many to be worth recommending. In fact, there were so many I felt were excellent that I've divided my year-end recommendations into three categories – best recommendations from Fire Starter Publishing, recommendations from other publishers, and recommendations for your favorite healthcare leader. If you would like to order books that were published by Fire Starter Publishing, you may do so at www.firestarterpublishing.com. Other books may be ordered at Amazon.com or from your favorite website or book store. Here are my recommendations. Happy Reading.

First, from Fire Starter Publishing. The following books were all authored by Studer Group colleagues and friends; their books will help you take organizational performance and results to the next level.

• Straight A Leadership: Alignment, Action, Accountability by Quint Studer. Quint Studer's long-awaited new book is a practical toolkit for leading and managing successfully in our current turbulent times. The book is well-organized to give the senior leader a practical approach, using Evidence-Based Leadership tools, tactics and surveys. The book has a real focus on the external environment and how to make that a part of the conversation in your organization.
• Excellence in the Emergency Department: How to get results by Stephanie Baker. This book includes great case studies and testimonials. Learning Points at the end of each chapter reinforce key concepts. This is the textbook for how Hardwiring Excellence meets the Emergency Department. ED staff and physicians will instantly be able to relate. This book is in my general recommendations section because the ED is the front door to the hospital and a critical piece of the puzzle if you are to get patient satisfaction right.
• Hardwiring Flow: Systems and Processes for Seamless Patient Care by Thom Mayer and Kirk Jensen. Drs. Mayer and Jensen have written a thoroughly readable book with specific recommendations on how to run a more efficient and effective organization by focusing on flow throughout the system. The stories are illustrative and the examples easy to relate to. The book includes many tool kits and tactical recommendations that will drive results. The text describes alignment along the flow continuum with Studer Group's Evidence-Based Leadership tools and tactics.
• Eat THAT Cookie by Liz Jazwiec. If you've ever heard Liz speak, you'll want to get this book for your entire team. If you've never heard Liz speak, you should buy this book to give yourself – and your team – the Liz experience. With her not-so-subtle humor, Liz provides practical tips on how to create a workplace where people want to work – with each other – instead of whining. This is a short book and an easy read. It's fun – and ever so impactful. Use it as a preassignment before your next LDI.

Next are recommendations from other publishers. With one exception, these are general business books with applications for any healthcare leader.

• Partnership of Equals: Practical Strategies for Healthcare CEOs and their Boards by Peter McGinn. I had an opportunity to review an early draft of this book and really liked it then. It's even better in the final, published version. Pete McGinn has done a great service to every healthcare CEO who works with a Board. Each chapter has guidelines for how the CEO and how the Board should use the information. The book is well researched and includes tips for CEOs and Boards within systems. Pete left us much too early but his life, philosophy of leading and contributions to our field live on in his words.

Here are two books that hit my reading list at the perfect time to impact the dilemma organizations are facing in today's economy:

• How the Mighty Fall and why some companies never give in by Jim Collins. How the Mighty Fall is Collins' latest book – just published this spring and takes advantage of all the turbulence in our current economy. As always, the book is well-researched and thoughtfully written. The model makes so much sense you wonder how companies can miss the cues and clues. Buy the book. Read it now. Avoid falling into Stage 4 or 5.
• Bounce: The art of turning tough times into triumph by Keith McFarland. I had the opportunity to read a pre-publication draft of Keith's latest book. It's outstanding. This is a highly readable business fable. I heartily recommend this as a pre-read before your next strategic planning session.

Our new economy requires every leader – in fact, every employee – to focus on being the best and to look for opportunities to "sell" the next customer. These two books can help every organization develop what Keith McFarland calls the "nose for new business."

• Become the Only Choice – a customer focused approach to selling the way people buy by Mike Jacoutot. I have been looking for several years for a really good book on consultative sales. This is it. The tools, techniques and recommendations have been drawn from several authors but Mike has tested the concepts and used them to build a successful business. The process can be used if you are doing business development formally or if you just want to "sell" you boss on a new idea. The book will be a great investment in your future.
• What Your Clients Won't Tell You and your managers don't know by John Gamble. This classic fable about how a company built its clients for life philosophy is an easy read that presents a basic philosophy and clear steps to put into place. The Appendix provides an excellent summary.

I really liked this next book but found it fairly controversial when I recommended it for LDI or executive team reading. Gen Yers didn't like the categorization. As a Baby Boomer, I found it tremendously enlightening.

• Generation Y and the New Rules of Management by Mark Murphy with Andrea Burgio-Murphy. What a great book. This will definitely be on my best books of the year list. It explains so much about the generational differences we are all seeing in the work place. It's an easy read but a very powerful book. Add this to your Leadership Development curriculum for the year – have all your leaders read the book and discuss it's implications. The future of your organization may depend on how you adjust to these generational differences. (Generation Y is the group born between about 1976 and 2000.)

This last book is a great one to toss in your briefcase and read a chapter at a time when you are delayed in that next airport.

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Read this book to learn and to be intrigued. More importantly, read Gladwell's newest book and start thinking about implications in your own work and life. I was given the book as a potential preassignment for a Board retreat. I think Board members would find it interesting, but not foundational for their work. Executive teams should read and discuss the book as a springboard for changing the way they look at work and the work force. It can be transformational.

Finally, I have some recommendations for your favorite (fill in the blank). These are excellent books with a more limited audience.
For your favorite Chief Medical Officer, physician, administrator or nurse leader who works with physicians in the hospital setting, may I recommend:

• Engaging Physicians: A Manual to Physician Partnership by Stephen Beeson. Practicing physician and Studer Group Coach Steve Beeson has another winner on his hands. Engaging Physicians provides a logical, sequenced approach to aligning physicians with the hospital or health system's goal of excellence. The book includes outstanding chapters on the selection and training of physician leaders and champions. There are Key Learnings at the end of each chapter to summarize the points. There are practical tips and great sets of tough questions with answers to help the physician champion. The Physician Engagement Leader Checklist in the summary of the book is a great tool. Although Dr. Beeson is talking about physicians, the book is a great refresher on the key points in Hardwiring Excellence by Quint Studer. Every organization Steve has visited will see themselves in these pages.

For your nurses, nursing students or someone special who is thinking about becoming a nurse, may I recommend:

• Inspired Nurse by Rich Bluni, RN. This is a connect to purpose book that will make every nurse remember why he/she became a nurse and why they get up every day to make a difference. I think this is going to be THE GIFT for nurses during Nurses Week 2009.

For your favorite CFO, may I recommend:

• Beyond the Gift Shop: Strategic Healthcare Retail by Mindy Thompson-Banko. This was an outstanding book that hit my reading list at the perfect time. There were great ideas that can certainly be used by healthcare organizations looking for opportunities to diversify revenue sources. Thompson-Banko's ideas are well-grounded in her own experience and research. The book is well-organized, easy-to-read and will be a valuable resource.

For every leader who emails and wants to do it better, may I recommend:

• Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe. This book will help you know how and when to use email effectively – and when not to. There are also great sections on when and why it's still best to use letters, FAX, phone and text/instant messaging. The book includes great examples – some created to communicate some specific points and some are real. Many are very funny. Time Management – including email and meeting management – is a hot topic at Leadership Development Institutes today. This book can help any leader be prepared to make a presentation or lead the conversation about how to change email from a burden to a facilitator of effective communications.

For every marketer, I have two recommendations:

• A Marketer's Guide to Brand Strategy by Chris Bevolo. A very prescriptive look at how to proactively develop a brand strategy that will focus and energize your healthcare organization. This book provides practical guidance on how – and why - the healthcare organization can – and should - take its first steps into the branding arena.
• A Marketer's Guide to Market Research by Daniel Fell and David Shepherd. Excellent research tips; really very helpful. Danny and David have learned from their own mistakes. They provide a very complete basic approach to research. This would be a great text for a marketing research class.