Fixing Humpty Dumpty

Healthcare is one of the most controversial social topics across America. Numerous debates and widely diverse opinions exist on the fixes needed to support a service industry that mandates excellent patient experience and quality.

The Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme is a natural analogy to describe the emotions of today’s healthcare stakeholders and leaders. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.


In this rhyme Humpty Dumpty is depicted as an egg figured character. A dropped egg provides a vivid image of a thin shell body fractured into multiple pieces. Unfortunately this is the way many healthcare stakeholders feel about America’s healthcare system, fractured, splintered, and disjointed.


It is a fact that cultural transformation is required to address major concerns within America’s healthcare system.


Transformation is never a walk in the park and especially in an industry that has been described by many leadership management experts as one of the most complex industries to lead. There is a public cry for healthcare leaders of the 21st Century to be front and center and lead the systemic transformation to obtain sustainable excellence.

With the mounting factual data available, this transformation is now mandatory. The question that rings out loud is, “How do we begin to change our traditional culture and create a foundational culture that will be able to sustain the winds of change and create a high quality service center of excellence?” Clarity and agreement is amiss among healthcare stakeholders on the best steps to take.


Culture Transformation lays the organizational foundational values to support a culture of excellence. Authentic culture transformation must originate within the organization with the people that work there.


Culture transformation begins by peeling back all the facades and taking a genuine look at the core organizational values and how these values are portrayed in the organizational sandbox. Are these values that support excellence? Just as individuals have the opportunity to change themselves on the inside, an organization has this privilege. People are where they are, because of the way they think, and if they do not like where they are, then they have the free will to change the way they think.


Healthcare workers purpose their lives toward the healing of mankind and it is the healthcare workers that will ultimately win the day and heal our healthcare industry. As innovative and strong leaders of healthcare of the 21st century our job is to reengineer and develop the BEST healthcare delivery system in the world.


Laying fertile foundational ground for cultural transformation takes effort and can not be taken for granite. While there may be an eagerness for transformation steps to be glossed over, omission of any of these foundational steps will jeopardize sustainability of culture excellence in an organization. Attempting to jump past the establishment of core values will lead the efforts of the cultural transformation process into more of the flavor of the month or shooting star initiative within the organization. This star will land ultimately on the side of an unhealthy culture.


Ignoring environmental culture factors and their importance will continue to propel a poorly functioning healthcare system. A new value based healthcare culture of the future will be proactive in preventing the fall of Humpty Dumpty.

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