Experience in Motion at Cedars-Sinai Medical Network

As one of just ten health care systems participating in Inside Out–The Experience Lab’s national Experience transformation collaborative–the leaders of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network (CSMN) are designing a new kind of Experience for their team members, providers, patients, and guests.

John Jenrette, MD, Executive Vice President; Mary Clare Lingel, Vice President, Strategic Integration of the Medical Network; Caroline Goldzweig, MD, Medical Director, Quality Clinical Performance; and Brad Rosen, MD, Vice President, Physician Alignment and Care Transitions, launched their organization’s Experience endeavor, Experience in Motion, earlier this year and have been welcoming their colleagues into this exciting new work ever since.

Experience In Motion is a robust organization-wide endeavor designed to engage, energize, and equip the CSMN team to become the architects of a more meaningful and memorable culture and Experience throughout the Medical Network. The team’s strategic Experience activation, transformation, and organization-wide cascade started by forming an executive Experience Steering Team–named E-20. E-20 members were exposed to Experience Design theory and principles via a unique full-day Experience Salon. “In the salon, we went through in great detail what our intention of Outstanding Care, Outstanding Teams, and Outstanding Experiences really looks like–and feels like. It allowed us to identify and say this is who we are as an organization and a culture. It was a place where everyone’s voice was heard and a space for people to share ideas, express concerns, and brainstorm on challenges without us jumping in prematurely to save the day or solve the problem,” Dr. Jenrette shared. “Leaders discussed the Inside Out principles of bringing their whole hearts, including vulnerability and courage, to their work. And they took time to look inward, reflecting on themselves as leaders—who they are and where they’re going.”

Immersing this E-20 Executive Team into the realm of Experience and casting them as Experience architects and designers allowed for each leader to view their own work through the lens of Experience, and to begin to see Experience as a new context and a “way” of doing everything at CSMN. The realm of Experience was further explored through hands-on expeditions to Experience exemplars across Los Angeles–gaining real-world insights and learning to rapidly extract, adapt, and apply principles. “Studying others reminds us that it’s not just about the metrics and the numbers, it’s also about how someone feels about their Experience and the stories they tell,” said Dr. Jenrette. “It’s about what it actually means to that patient’s care when you improve quality. When you change access. When you streamline a process. When you anticipate needs. When you surprise and delight. And when you create a more personal Experience.”

In October of this year, Cedars-Sinai Medical Network welcomed 150 more leaders to participate in Experience in Motion salons with the E-20 Experience Steering Team now serving as hosts, guides, and facilitators. To Dr. Jenrette, this Experience journey has been about dropping pebbles in a pond, creating ripples through his organization: from the four executives who joined him in Inside Out, the 20 welcomed onto the Experience Steering team, and now expanding this work to all leaders and ultimately the entire Medical Network. Dr. Jenrette said in his closing comments, “I am inspired by all of you. I have every confidence that you are the leaders capable of changing everything… for the better. Thank you for being a pebble in the pond and creating an extraordinary and outstanding difference.”