I have many teachers. Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick are two of them. They are best-selling authors, presenters, and coaches. Chester has presented in Pensacola,…
Instead of pointing a finger, hold out your hand. This statement combines two familiar “hand” metaphors. The first is that when we have one finger pointing…
When operating margins get tight, excellent emergency department performance becomes an organizational imperative. The ED influences patient volume, hospital admissions, community reputation, patient loyalty,…
Every day, healthcare organizations promote some of their best people. Charge nurses become managers. Clinicians become department heads. Physicians step into administrative roles. These…
Instead of pointing a finger, hold out your hand. This statement combines two familiar “hand” metaphors. The first is that when we have one finger pointing…
Healthcare doesn’t need a fresh start—it needs a thoughtful rewire. Rewiring Healthcare: Foundation to Future brings together senior leaders to step back…
She was a supervisor for a busy hospital unit. She came to my class not really wanting to be there. She sat up front, arms folded and scowling. I understood. I think it’s fair to say that as a nurse, she had sat through many training classes by “experts” who told her how to do some intricate part of her job. I hope I never forget the feeling this nurse expressed. I well remember feeling…
How much impact does leadership inexperience have on your organization? I feel the sleeping giant today in terms of operational excellence is the number of new people. By this, I mean those who are new to the organization as well as those who are new to the role in general. For example, a person might be experienced in leadership but new to the organization. Or, they might be part of the organization, but new to…
Healthcare feels different now—because it is. Workforces are smaller, demand is rising, and culture expectations have changed. In a recent episode of the Healthcare Plus Podcast, Dan Collard and Dr. Katherine Meese introduce Genfluence: How to Lead a Multigenerational Workforce, new from ACHE Learn. The authors describe Genfluence as a research-grounded guide to leading across generations, written without relying on cliches or doom narratives. They took all the research and myths and distilled the best…
Emergency department volumes are up. Patient complexity is rising. And care teams are often newer, stretched, and carrying more emotional load than ever before. Yet many EDs are still trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. That’s why I wrote Rewiring the Emergency Department: Innovative Solutions for Modern Emergency Care. This book is not about incremental fixes or quick wins. It’s about rewiring how the ED is designed, led, staffed, and supported so it…
I was in a meeting with a person who shared something they heard that has had a significant impact on their life. My own thinking went into overdrive on the people and messages that have impacted me (and still do). These messages have been received in various ways: one-on-one with a person, hearing a statement in a meeting or at a presentation, reading a book, watching a video, and so forth. Here is a partial…
CHICAGO, IL (January 2026)—Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired, Second Edition—written by Quint Studer and Dan Collard—has received the 2026 James A. Hamilton Award given by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). It will be presented at the ACHE 2026 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, to be held March 2-4 in Houston, Texas. The award is given yearly to the author(s) of a management or healthcare book judged outstanding by ACHE’s Book of the Year Committee.…
Today’s healthcare workforce is thinner, more mobile, and under constant pressure. That means organizations can’t afford leadership gaps. Building a strong bench from the ground up creates continuity, protects institutional knowledge, and reduces overreliance on costly external hires—while signaling to early-career talent that you intend to invest in them. When you ask Emerson Health why they invest in internships and a one-year fellowship—especially when budgets are tight—the answer comes back to strategy and values: grow…
For most of my career, I believed that being a good leader meant fixing things: fixing problems, fixing people, and fixing situations that felt unfair, inefficient, or out of my control. If something went wrong, my instinct was to step in, straighten it out, and make sure it didn’t happen again. That approach served me well in some moments, but over time, I learned a hard truth: Not everything needs to be solved, and not…
A book I have found helpful is The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. It was first published in 1995. When small business owners or individuals considering starting a business ask me what book I recommend, this is my go-to suggested read. It is where I learned the concept of working on the business rather than only in the business. I became aware of The E-Myth Revisited as part of a roundtable of small business…
January is in full force, and some of us are still in resolution mode. I’m going to join a gym. I’m going to start cooking a healthy meal three days a week. I’m going to get that new certification. I’m going to introduce a new process for my department. Healthcare people are doers by nature, and that’s great. Doers make things happen. But the reality is, we all have limited hours and limited energy. We…