Pickle Pledge: Creating a More Positive Healthcare Culture — One Attitude at a Time

The Pickle Pledge and The Pickle Challenge for Charity were the first steps in a cultural transformation process at Midland Health that resulted in:

• Midland Memorial Hospital going from all-time low to all-time high patient satisfaction in less than a year.
• Employee engagement going from below average to the highest it’s ever been over that same period of less than a year.
• A recurring annual Cultural Productivity Benefit of between seven and ten million dollars per year.
• An outstanding reputation in the community and national recognition in journal articles, books, and podium presentations.
• Midland health being the first healthcare organization in America to be honored with the INSPIRIED Award for values and culture excellence.
• Most important, by taking The Pickle Pledge to heart, hundreds of Midland Health employees have made dramatic improvements in their own personal lives.

In this book Joe Tye and Bob Dent share the strategies used and the lessons learned from the culture change project at Midland Health, and the way The Pickle Pledge and the Pickle Challenge for Charity have helped hundreds of other healthcare organizations promote a more positive and productive culture of ownership in a fun and lighthearted way.

Joe Tye is CEO and Head Coach of Values Coach Inc. in Solon, Iowa. Bob Dent is Senior Vice President of Midland Health and COO/CNO of Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas.

Joe Tye is Founder, CEO and Head Coach of Values Coach Inc., which provides consulting, coaching and training on organizational culture and values-based life and leadership skills for healthcare clients. Joe earned a Master's Degree in Hospital and Health Administration from The University of Iowa and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was class co-president. He is the author of 12 books, including The Florence Prescription: From Accountability to Ownership, which has nearly 500,000 copies in print. Prior to founding Values Coach in 1994 Joe was chief operating officer for several large community teaching hospitals. On the volunteer front he was founding president of the Association of Air Medical Services and as founder of STAT (Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco) was a leading activist fighting against unethical tobacco industry marketing practices. He and his wife Sally have two adult children. They live on a small farmstead in Iowa and their second home is a tent in the Grand Canyon.