If French chefs can change their recipe, so can health system marketers
Part Three of our series on overcoming industry inertia for ServingOverSelling
For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, French cuisine adhered to what was called the “classical” style of cooking. Originally emerging from the French Revolution and the growth of restaurants, the classical style of cooking was codified by famed chef Georges Auguste Escoffier and his book Le Guide Culinaire, first published in 1903. Escoffier reflected the classical style that sought to deemphasize individualism and promote a systematic approach to cuisine, as he noted in a preface to a later edition to his book:
“In a word, cookery whilst continuing to be an art will become scientific and will have to submit to formulas which very often are still too empirical, to a method and precision which leaves nothing to chance.”
But all that had changed by the end of the 20th century. Starting with cultural, political and societal shifts in France in the 1960s, the “nouvelle” style of cuisine began to emerge. This movement sought to return the chef to the forefront, pushing for creativity and originality over systems and “science.” In 2003, researchers released a study in the American Journal of Sociology titled "Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy." In the study (which is paywalled, but which I purchased and reviewed for this article), the researchers found that in 1970, 83.5% of “elite” chefs were dominantly classical; by 1997, 70.2% were dominantly nouvelle. This represented a complete upheaval of the status quo which had dominated French cuisine for over a century. The authors used this transformation to study what forces shaped that change, and their findings provide a framework for those in our industry who want to overcome industry inertia and prioritize ServingOverSelling. So let’s start cooking…
Changing the recipe
In their research, the study’s authors found that the dominant dynamic behind the change from classical to nouvelle cuisine was that the “identity” of the French chefs themselves changed. That is, despite all of the industry forces aligned with supporting the classical style of cuisine, which included everything from culinary schools to restaurant ownership by non-chefs, it was the individual beliefs and actions of the chefs themselves that drove change. That should be encouraging for health system marketers given the eight forces of industry inertia we outlined in Part Two of our series. Many of those – “best practice mentality,” “board involvement,” “the agency ecosystem” – likely feel beyond the reach of marketers to actually change in any meaningful way. And that’s because, well, they are. At least any time soon. If marketers believed they had to change the conservative nature of medicine itself or the ingrained governance culture they face to pursue ServingOverSelling, they might never even try. But what we can learn from this study is that rather than trying to dismantle entrenched industry forces, marketers have the power within themselves, within their “identities,” to drive change. Here’s what the study’s authors say are the four primary dynamics that led to the nouvelle revolution in French cuisine:
One – The legitimacy of activists
Especially in the beginning, the integrity of and respect for those pushing for change are critical. In this case, you may think that’s us here at Bearing 287. Odds are if you’ve followed my books and thought leadership throughout my career, you’re more likely to consider the ServingOverSelling movement we’ve launched. If you haven’t heard of me, you might instead consider me, as the paper alludes to, “an irrelevant gadfly” whose POV isn’t worth risking your career over. But the truth is, it’s not just me – others have signed our public pledge, including some highly respected current and former health system CMOs. In other words, you don’t have to just take my word for it to find legitimacy in ServingOverSelling.
Two – Theorization of the new role
For French chefs, this included the release of a set of “10 commandments” for nouvelle cooking, painting a clear picture of what the new approach looked like. For the ServingOverSelling movement, that’s the “Future Role of the CMO,” which we outlined at the launch of our campaign. The movement isn’t just about dramatically reducing “selling” (aka promotional marketing), it’s about better “serving” patients, communities and our own staff. It’s about ramping up focus on, leadership of and spending for the consumer experience, access, communications, organizational reputation, public health and health literacy, advocacy/policy, recruitment, internal engagement, and community engagement. We’ll be spending more time on this moving forward, doing what one speaker at a recent conference called “painting the beautiful tomorrow.”
Three – Defections by peers
I love that the study calls these “defections” – it sounds like a radical, underground act. And in the beginning, it may feel that way. That’s why the quality of the “defectors” is more important to rolling back industry inertia than the quantity is. I already mentioned that some of the leading thinkers in this space have signed on to a public pledge supporting ServingOverSelling. That should give permission to others to make the same pledge and pursue real action. The key is to have other current CMOs join the movement. It’s one thing for a former participant to “defect” (I left the field a year ago, so my “defection” holds far less weight); it’s another for those actually holding the marketing purse strings to signal their support of ServingOverSelling.
Four – Gains for early defectors
We have spent – and will spend – ample time and effort showing how ServingOverSelling is not just the right thing to do in the face of America’s growing healthcare affordability crisis but is actually beneficial to CMOs and their health systems. But the best way to convince others to “defect” from the status quo and embrace a new direction is to show evidence that the new direction is having better impact than the status quo. French chefs saw the awarding of Michelin stars to those who adopted the nouvelle style, which was a public reinforcement that the new approach was becoming the best approach. Perhaps we’ll introduce a new award for health systems, The ServingOverSelling Award (yay, just what everybody wants – another award!). More likely, as we build the number of participants in the ServingOverSellingmovement, we’ll solicit success stories from those who have taken action and made a difference. We may even create a dashboard capturing the industry-wide progress of ServingOverSelling, such as the amount of money that has been reinvested or saved, or the ways in which reinvested money has improved the lives of patients or community members. But without a collective accounting of the benefits of the ServingOverSelling movement, any impact will be muted.
How you cook is up to you
So there it is – the “recipe” that allowed French chefs to completely change their field. There are two notable cautions to this, however:
The transition from classical to nouvelle style French cooking took decades to complete. We don’t have decades, not if we want to make an impact on the healthcare affordability crisis, or better serve our patients, communities and organizations. In pulling on the four levers noted here, we need to move much faster. The good news is we’re just trying to overcome 30-40 years of industry inertia rather than 150 years.
The four levers aren’t all equal in their power to effect change. According to the researchers, the least powerful component was the first – the legitimacy of activists. So no matter how loud I yell from the rooftops or my LinkedIn feed, our impact will be limited without industry support. The other weaker lever was the fourth – public gains. It’s too easy for people to see results and say, “yeah, but my situation is different.”
Given those cautions, the role of individuals – of changing our “identities” – is even clearer. Each of us has an important role to play: for me and those who have started this movement, we need to continue to demonstrate the value of the “new role” by “painting the beautiful tomorrow.” To show marketing leaders that moving away from promotional marketing is not only the right thing to do for their patients and society, but that it will bring more value to their organizations and to their careers. According to the study, this is the strongest lever of change in the study of French cuisine.
And your role? To “defect” from the status quo and join the movement. For each person who raises their hand to support ServingOverSelling, it’s that much easier for the next person to join. Then we can truly change the recipe, move beyond wasteful and ineffective promotional marketing, and focus on delivering real value to those we serve. For those ready to defect today, sign our pledge and help move ServingOverSelling forward.