Restauranteurs Can Teach us a Thing or Two

"Good ideas take an appallingly long time to trickle down" says Atul Gawande in the August 13/20 issue of The New Yorker magazine. He argues that the practice of medicine would be more efficient, less costly and of higher quality--if it were to operate like a Cheesecake Factory restaurant. The Cheesecake Factory analogy can be also be applied to delivery of higher education. Gawande finds promise in a collaborative and supportive environment where leaders model and reinforce best practices -- greater standardization, centralized oversight, remote and virtual technology to bridge geographical distance and ongoing retraining. And he suggests ways to strategically disseminate good ideas to gain support from the reluctant.