Case Study
Reframing With Human Stories
Sparking and Sustaining Change Through Emotional Insight
From Flat Scores to a Deeper Problem
Reframing is often essential to reveal what’s really driving a strategic or operational challenge. Without this insight, even well-intentioned solutions can erode trust and engagement. In this case, a regional health system that had once been known for its patient-experience had seen its scores flatten. The direction from the CEO was straightforward: “improve the scores”. But other signals pointed to something deeper: a culture of “optionality,” where accountability had grown inconsistent and results varied widely across departments.
The Spark to See Differently
Before launching a new improvement campaign, the leadership team paused to understand the lived experience of their patients. What they discovered was a profound disconnect between what leaders imagined as an ideal experience for their patients and what their patients were actually living. For years the team had been reviewing graphs and survey results, yet nothing had changed. They didn’t need more data. They needed a new perspective.
What followed provided that spark — a visceral moment of reframing that changed everything.
The Sealed Envelope Moment
At a retreat, executives were paired off and asked to design the ideal patient experience for different scenarios, like a pregnancy, a new cancer diagnosis, or an emergency department visit. After each pair shared the imagined ideal journey, each pair opened a sealed envelope. Inside was a real patient story — a story of frustration, of failure and pain in that very scenario. The room fell silent. The conversation shifted from “scores” to “what our patients go through” and “who are we if we deliver this kind of care.”
The exercise reframed the problem. This wasn’t just about patient satisfaction. It was about leadership accountability and moral ownership of outcomes. Their identity as leaders of a system of high-quality care was threatened by stories of real failure.
Making Purpose Practical
The retreat sparked a new guiding policy: connect to purpose. Leaders realized that sustainable improvement would require daily, human connection — not another communication campaign.
Within a week, new practices were in motion:
A senior leader joined the patient experience director every day at noon to meet inpatients face-to-face.
Each meeting opened with a team member reading a patient’s words aloud — creating a shared emotional connection far deeper than any emailed report.
Staff members took turns presenting their unit’s patient experience data and reflections.
Each quarterly meeting began with a patient sharing their own story — sometimes including caregivers who were recognized publicly for their impact.
Accountability was reinforced through structure: every unit leader developed a 90-day improvement plan, shared results quarterly, and set new goals based on recent performance.
Measurable and Meaningful Progress
The initiative achieved its goal. Multiple units reached and sustained patient experience scores in the 90th percentile, placing them among the top 10% nationally. Systemwide averages rose steadily, and the sense of ownership among leaders deepened.
Beyond metrics, something more important shifted: purpose became contagious. Managers reported greater engagement, stronger peer accountability, and renewed energy for every initiative — from budgeting to growth. Performance improved not through compliance, but through commitment.
Emotion Before Motion
Dashboards, 90-action plans, and quarterly business reviews were important, but alone they would not have changed the behavior. Those structures had existed for years. The stories of human experience, and the personal connection to these experiences, provided both spark to start, and also the motivation to stick with the changes.
What changed people was human understanding. Stories of real patients created both the spark to begin and the motivation to sustain change.
In this case — and in many — emotion preceded motion. Human understanding turned strategy from an intellectual exercise into a moral imperative and a reflection of each leader’s identity.
(With gratitude to Quint Studer and the Studer Group for developing and guiding implementation of this patient-centered leadership model. For more on their methods, read "Hardwiring Excellence.")
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