Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic: Inside One of the World's Most Admired Service Organizations

I read a good deal of Discovering the Soul of Service - also by Mr. Berry - in conjunction with a Business Plan I wrote for an Econ class in college. I could have sat and read the entire thing, but didn't have the time ----- so I BOUGHT IT! :) Then I came across THIS title: Management Lessons From Mayo Clinic, a clinic "referenced" in the above-mentioned book. Mayo has been my family's clinic for over 30 years, and I can attest to the accolades bestowed upon this organization! In 30+ years, I have come in contact with only 2-3 employees I found unacceptable in the field of service! I'm thinking that's a near-impossible feat! So I found and bought this one, as well, right here on Amazon - my favorite site from which to make purchases.

Great communication and great product!

"Management Lessons from Mayo Clinic" explains how one service organization built a brand based on customer service that has lasted more than a century. This book offers examples of customer service that could be applied to the management of any organization. After reading the book, it is obvious to me that the authors have successfully communicated why Mayo Clinic has become an almost mythical institution. They stated in the beginning that the Clinic culture was based on its core principles and then described how the founders reinforced these principles by example and passed on the culture of value to the subsequent leaders and other employees. They drive home the point of the book and mantra of the clinic: "the needs of the patient come first." The authors tended to emphasize the positives within the organization while glossing over the negatives. Perhaps you can argue that it was not the purpose of the book to point out the mistakes the Clinic has made. The authors admit that there have been mistakes and problems but didn't give much depth into what the problems actually were. It should be noted that one of the authors had recently retired from 15 years of service to the Clinic and may not be able to offer an objective critical analysis of the Clinic. The authors mention the time spent in committees but don't really mention anyone complaining about the time lost (page 116). It would be interesting to hear suggestions or even an outright complaint from an employee regarding the time spent in these meetings. Has the Mayo Clinic become so proficient at communication that every employee understands the value of time spent in meetings? Perhaps they have. The authors seem convinced when they make the statement: "We conclude that what is most impressive about Mayo Clinic is how well it has executed its core values and strategies for more than a century. And this is the basis for our conclusion that the people of Mayo Clinic--represent the crucial explanatory variable in the Clinic's sustained excellence. "As Leonard Berry states in an earlier work: Attracting great people is the first rule of execution. Great service companies attract great people to perform the service. It is a simple idea. It is a powerful idea. And it is--for most companies--an elusive idea" (page 255)." The authors spent 265 pages describing how Mayo Clinic has used the Cycle of Success to develop and maintain a successful business and brand. Mayo Clinic, or rather the employees of Mayo Clinic have created a culture of success to carry the clinic into the future as a leader in not only patient treatment but also in employee treatment. Although the authors' presentation of the Clinic may be a bit biased to the positive, the book is well-written with many valuable insights into the operation of a successful service organization, and I highly recommend it.

I was a patient at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and could not believe how wonderful the hospital is to all of its patients. Read the book and I understand! Great read, and the stories are incredibly heartwarming. I am forever grateful and proud to have been cared for by such a wonderful team. The book is definitive and a model for how a hospital must be operated!

This book merely deals with health care delivery at Mayo Clinic, one of the best run HSOs worldwide. It examines intricate processes at various practices or product lines and they how are managed. It exposes a culture that is well understood by the employees and how that culture is vivid in the care for every patient. With that said, the material is applicable to any service organization. The concepts can be applied in delivering service to customers. For example, personable and customizable service is a key to retaining customers and scoring high on customer satisfaction surveys. Treating customers differently than competitors is what keeps those customers coming back and become a free advertisement to the organization. The book is well written and easy to understand.

This book is a gem from multiple standpoints. It describes to a tee the culture and processes at the Mayo Clinic. (As a long time patient there, I can verify that the unbelievable level of service and attention is experienced by patients exactly as Berry and Seltman describe it.) They describe not only the what, but also the why and how, of service at Mayo. But going beyond Mayo and health care, the authors include a "Lessons for Managers" section at the end of each chapter, detailing how the principles in that chapter could be applied to a wide range of organizations. Mayo is repeatedly voted one of the top health care providers in America, and patients come from all over the world to be treated there. Read this book and you'll understand why.

This book is worth reading if you have an interest in healthcare management and want to get some tidbits on Mayo Clinic, but I was left a bit disappointed. There is very little effort made to benchmark Mayo against other hospitals, especially other leading hospital systems. The authors emphasize Mayo's values such as "putting patients first," but it is hard to find a respectable hospitable that would not prioritize that same value. Unfortunately I felt like I learned little more about why Mayo is great than I would reading a book about why Oxford or Harvard universities are great: they established a reputation for excellence long ago and have thus been able to attract the faculty (physicians) and administrators that have perpetuated their spot at the top. Given my interest in healthcare management I found it worth the read, but I would not recommend it for people looking for general management lessons or specific in-depth analysis about what is unique about the Mayo model.

The Mayo Clinic is first and foremost an empathic and compassionate physician-led organization that is guided by the persisting and unwavering vision, mission, objectives, goals, and values laid down by its founders. The Mayo Clinic's guiding principle has been 'the needs of the patient come first' and has been backed up by a corresponding model of quality care, tradition and culture. The authors have done a great job explaining, with historical accounts, numerous anecdotes and testimonials, why the Mayo Clinic has stuck to its principles when so many other organizations have drifted into mediocrity, degenerated, lost their way, or worse gone 'psychopathic' (as described in The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power by Joel Bakan.) While many of the corporations associated with the recent financial debacles have been associated with white collar psychopaths (as described in Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare), the Mayo Clinic has for decades worked hard to attract the very opposite kind of person. The Mayo Clinic has, with great determination and purpose, screened out those whose values are antithetical to highly compassionate and ethical multidisciplinary competence, cooperation, contribution, and collaboration. The enduring and critical importance of selectively hiring only people with values and motivations aligned with those set down by the founders has been convincingly emphasized as a key to the legendary and peerless Mayo Clinic reputation.

Best book on how to run a health system. Wonderful ethos.

Mayo is a great clinic. But this book is useless. Propaganda. Only propaganda. No good information for managers besides what is obvious.

Un business model orienté vers le patient, comme cela devrait être partout mais comme cela n'est nulle part. Ce livre n'expose pas d'idées nouvelles mais démontre que cela est possible et donne quelques pistes pour améliorer le fonctionnement de l'hopital. Il démontre également qu'un fonctionnement hospitalier basé sur des décisions médicales amène au mieux lorsqu'il est modélisé dès le recrutement des médecins.

Delivered as promised