Wagner Event Explores Process of Changing 
Workplace Culture at Large Health Care Institutions

       The guest experts at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Affairs annual Kovner/Berhman Health Forum lecture on March 31 enumerated measurable ways of changing the workplace culture—that is, what people expect from each other and from themselves—in large health care institutions and other kinds of complex organizations.
        Wagner professor of public health and management Anthony R. Kovner (standing in photo) moderated and Denise Rousseau, professor at Carnegie-Mellon, explained that change measurably spreads when workers trust the people pushing it forward, and when it alters the things people do rather than simply asking them to adjust their attitude.
        Bernard Birnbaum, NYU professor of radiology and the senior vice president, vice dean, and chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone Medical Center, led the capacity audience—which included senior health care executives and other organization leaders, students, and faculty—through the intricate work of measuring work flow in order to unequivocally make it better.