In an era of purported healthcare ‘crises’, an innovative approach to examine, understand and ultimately improve health service management is one that focuses on brilliance. Revealing pockets of brilliance gives voice to practitioners who might otherwise remain (unfairly) stereotyped as part of a systemic problem. With few exceptions, this positive wave into the ocean of health service management is seldom surfed and if so, usually from a cynical perspective. This paper helps to address this void by guiding researchers and practitioners to understudied phenomena. Towards this aim, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it describes how brilliance emerged and evolved as a research focus and how secondary narrative material was used to shape the process of inquiry. Second, it explicates the philosophy that informed this methodology – namely, positive organisational scholarship in health. By drawing on exemplary findings that emerged from this process, this paper reveals how good healthcare is framed by both consumers and practitioners in non-clinical terms. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications associated with POSH for researchers and practitioners.