The case for improving access to care at Veterans Affairs (VA) was recently reviewed by students at Harvard Business School (HBS).  The second section of the case review may have been the best discussion of the case ever in the class because of the thought provoking topics.  Students in both sections were inspired by presentations […]

So far, we’ve seen that little interventions and intentional language can build trust in the high-stress world of management consulting, the life-and-death world of the military, and the constantly changing world of technology.  They also work at the highest level of government. In June 2014, Bob McDonald had been retired from Procter & Gamble for […]

It was my honor to teach again at Harvard Business School on November 29.  I  joined my friend Professor Ryan Buell in class 27 (of 28) of his Managing Service Operations Course.  In 2016 Ryan and his colleagues Robert Huckman and Sam Travers studied the transformation we led at the Department of Veterans Affairs and […]

We walked over to the VA headquarters building before 4 p.m.  Once we walked in the door, Diane and I were inundated with our former colleagues and friends.  We introduced our daughter Jenny and her husband Scott Rowland.  First it was the members of Protocol, then our photographers, then our Special Agents, and then office […]

Monday morning I was up at 5:30 a.m. in my hotel room in the Hyatt Regency Kyiv in Ukraine.  I exercised in the hotel fitness center and cleaned up.  I met my host John Boestler, CEO of Combined Arms, at 8:30 a.m.  We were driven to the veterans hospital Lisova Polyana in the Obolonsky district […]

I was so proud of my colleagues at the VA.  They shared their data which demonstrated a continual decline in the usage of opioids and an increase in alternative treatments for pain management that include acupuncture, yoga, tai chi, and whole health coaching.  Dr. Robert Sproul, Pharmacy Pain Program Manager and a leading voice nationally, […]