meaning to the organization, as an eight-point star is included in the St. Luke’s
logo.) The Five Points of the Star were identified as people, quality, service, cost,
and growth (see Exhibit 16.4). Each point also has indicators that are used to
ensure that the vision of each point is being achieved.
The vision of the people point was defined as having all leaders, staff and
volunteers in St. Luke’s Hospital and Health Network feel valued and recog-
nized from all levels within the Network. The indicators for this point are
• Having a strong customer service orientation throughout the system
• Implementing a process for professional development
• Retaining quality staff
• Acknowledging staff longevity and dedication
• Recognizing our volunteers
• Reducing employee turnover
• Letting employees know that they are the advocates for the success of
the entire network and that their contribution, regardless of the depart-
ment or function, is valuable and critical to the success of the institution
The quality point was designed to gauge the qualitative successes of the orga-
nization against benchmark data gathered for hospitals of similar size. St. Luke’s
continuously strives to reduce turnaround times, improve environmental qual-
ity, decrease length of stays, become the employer of choice in the local area,
be nationally recognized for clinical outcomes, and ultimately become the orga-
nization of choice. Finally, in addition to the aspirations of the leadership steer-
ing committee, the hospital itself wanted to be ranked as a top hospital by
industry experts for providing quality care and services.
The service point sets clear guidelines of what is expected of each employee
and volunteer. The network has partnered with Press Ganey to gauge patient sat-
isfaction. St. Luke’s works to wow the patient community with friendliness. The
institution recognizes its accomplishments and takes accountability for any short-
comings. Every quarter managers are expected to evaluate their scores and deter-
mine whether and where improvement is needed. Departments excelling against
their national peers are celebrated at each monthly management meeting.

opportunity to evaluate and, if applicable, implement new ideas into everyday
practice.
The implementation of these regular forums constituted another change to
the St. Luke’s culture. No longer could policies and procedures alone direct the
network’s leaders. Rather, the leaders had to think, plan, and respond differ-
ently to a dynamically changing health care environment while working in
successfully growing organization.
The forums always focused on the Five Points of the Star model and provided
educational and informational content to help develop the skills of the network
leadership. The manner in which the forums were conducted fostered a casual
atmosphere that was entertaining yet informative. Presenters at these sessions
were coached to entertain and interact and avoid a lecture-type format. Attend-
ing leaders were encouraged to socialize and network with their colleagues. The
leaders often stepped out of their more conservative roles and participated in
learning exercises or even presented in a humorous fashion. This quickly
revealed the diverse talent that made up the leadership team and made for a
more enjoyable time. All of the forums were held away from the workplace to
provide a brief separation from the job and focus the attention on the learning.
Another key element to the success of the leadership forums was and remains
the consistent interjections of fun. Although fun in the workplace may not be
valuable to other corporate cultures, St. Luke’s Hospital and Health Network con-
siders this value vital to its culture. During forum planning, all members brain-
storm methods of delivering valuable learning in an environment that is both
comfortable and enjoyable to guests. This attitude stems from the senior admin-
istration that exercises this methodology on an everyday basis. Management
ST. LUKE’S HOSPITAL AND HEALTH NETWORK
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meetings commonly have a comfortable tone. In addition, St. Luke’s provides
various programs during the year to appreciate the efforts and time of its entire

pendent event that was forgotten at the end of the day.
IMPLEMENTATION
The actual presentation of the leadership forums has been specifically designed
to embody the goals of the organization as a whole through the Five Points of the
Star model. In specific reference to employee satisfaction, the leadership forum
was dedicated to providing multiple programs per year that both educate and
challenge the over 260 St. Luke’s managers. Although each forum has a different
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focus, the structure is relatively the same. The morning portion is dedicated to
the guest lecturer (or presenter), who provides a presentation based on his or her
experiences away from St. Luke’s that have parallel values and applicability.
Many of the speakers share commonalities in personality and approach in that
they provide valuable learning while being charismatic, energized, and audience-
grabbing in delivery. The afternoon session involves the presentation of network
administrators and staff, who take some of the concepts presented by the guest,
and relate them to everyday challenges and opportunities within the network.
The leadership steering committee maintains the same delivery standards for its
own staff as it does for featured guests. It regularly works with and even reviews
the presentations to ensure that the audience will both learn and enjoy
from them. The successful outcome is seen in qualitative feedback received from
St. Luke’s staff indicating that these forums have made a difference in the way
they operate both as individual managers and as members of teams or
committees.
As the leadership forums approach their third full year of implementation, it
is valuable to trace back to their original development. The journey, as well
as the theme of stars for our leadership events, began on September 18, 2001,
with the “Journey to the Stars,” a kick-off event for the management team.
The scene was intentionally dramatic, with star-glittered sunglasses for all man-

• Do a very good needs analysis in the beginning. Work on the areas that
need improvement, don’t just gather statistics around things going
wrong. This is a problem-solving, proactive approach.
• Clearly define the things you want to measure, how you will measure
them (what tools you will use), and what you will do with the data to
help improve the system.
• Don’t point the finger of blame if something fails. Treat failure as a
teachable moment, use the opportunity to learn from it and instruct
those involved in the problem. Create an environment of learning when
mistakes happen.
• Create quality review teams that are made up of people from different
disciplines.
St. Luke’s senior vice president of finance discussed the growth point of the
star. Financial growth at all campuses and as a network was highlighted.
The senior vice president of network development cleverly presented St. Luke’s
network strategic plan. Based on the game show Jeopardy, the senior vice pres-
ident of network development and colleagues reenacted the game in a humor-
ous fashion. While educating the network of particular growth facts and
strategies, mock answers were also given as a means to joke about fictional
ideas and take the occasional sarcastic “jab” at present senior administration
across the network. This format was well received regarding the quantitative
feedback and general comments received on postforum surveys. The third
speaker of the growth forum, the CEO from St. Luke’s Quakertown, made a
humorous but educational presentation called “Building a Great Place to Work.”
While highlighting programs that did work, through multiple slides and pictures
he mocked programs that were not as successful.
Although leadership forums were grand stage events, they were only held
three times per year. The leadership steering committee recognized both the
need and demand of its employees by having regular stimuli for its managers.
Therefore, the Book Club was established across the network. The foundation