The celebrations follow CHW's strategy of customizing its change management effort by tailoring the galas to the culture of the individual facility. For example, the company held a conservative celebration in an upscale Phoenix hotel for one group but took another unit to a lively Las Vegas show.

The deep dive into each hospital's "personality" has been key to the success of the $54 million project to install Lawson Software ERP applications in all CHW facilities by the end of next year, said Carol Tyler, director of change management communication and education at the health care provider.

Tyler, whose position was created in 2003 to help shepherd the project through inevitable "people" issues, has found the most user resistance at the seven CHW hospitals where an earlier SAP ERP installation had failed, she said. The SAP effort was halted after five years, in 2001, in favor of a move to Lawson software.

"They had a very, very strong distaste for a new IT project. They had been through [the SAP] project, and they didn't care for it," Tyler said. "We found ourselves facing demons from the past."

To combat the lingering problems, Tyler held meetings with top management at each of those hospitals and worked with key users in their finance, supply chain and human resources operations to understand their concerns, she said.