The article “Innovation Starts with
the Heart, Not the Head” on Harvard
Business Review by Gary Hamel discussed about the importance of compassion
in innovation by sharing a story about Lakeland Health where compassion is
found in their working style. The article showed the story of Dr. Loren Hamel,
the CEO of Lakeland Health which faced the problem of having poor patient
satisfaction scores despite the above average care treatment provided and the
changes Dr. Hamel implemented. I agree with the article that innovation starts
with the heart instead of the head. I think that Dr. Hamel’s innovative ways to
improve Lakeland really shows the importance of empathy and compassion in
innovation.
In the article, Dr. Hamel’s idea of
improving the patient satisfaction scores Lakeland received was by encouraging
his staff to bring their hearts to work by saying simple words of care and
concern to the patients to help the patients forget their worries and feel
cared for. Dr. Hamel also did some research to understand the emotions and
feelings of patients admitted to the hospital so that the staff of Lakeland
could more effectively connect with their patients so that they will feel cared
for. Dr. Hamel also went further by doing rounds to learn about the progress of
his staff on making heartfelt connections and also helping them learn how to do
it even going further by commending each effort of every staff in making a
heartfelt connection by rewarding the staff with a heart to pin on his or her
badge (Hamel, 2015).
I feel that Dr. Hamel was very
innovative and resourceful in his ways to improve the patient satisfaction
scores by firstly understanding them before having his staff to make heartfelt
connections to each patient so that each patient will feel cared for. Through
the acts of heartfelt connections of Lakeland staff with patients, the patient satisfaction
scores of Lakeland soared which shows the effectiveness of Dr. Hamel in having
empathy in his innovative ways to improve the satisfaction of each patient. One
of the stories of Lakeland included the meltdown of a husband whose wife was
dying. One of the employees of Lakeland showed a simple gesture of offering a
hug to the devastated husband to help him recompose himself which helped in
keeping the situation under control (Hamel, 2015).
In conclusion, it is important to
have compassion and kindness in innovation as it is only through empathy where
the needs of others can be addressed successfully which is shown in the article
where patient satisfaction scores improved. If Dr. Hamel only improved the care
provided to patients, the needs of patients might still not be addressed which
results in a waste of effort and resources. As Dr. Hamel was empathetic, he was
able to find a new and innovative way of improving satisfaction scores by
showing patients how much the staff cared about them instead of just improving
healthcare like other hospitals which further supports the point that
innovation comes from the heart.
Reference Articles
Hamel, G. (2015, June).
Innovation Starts with the Heart, Not the Head. Harvard Business
Review. Retrieved
from https://hbr.org/2015/06/you-innovate-with-your-heart-not-your-head
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