I was in Chicago with 11 awesome people this week at a conference with Quint Studer. We drove, and on our way back we had really awesome conversations. I had Lori read a letter that I sent to Quint in 2011. It was right when Oprah was retiring from her daily show, and I told Quint that he was my Oprah. (Oprah - according to a lot of people - was their guiding light. Her insights and stories helped them to live their lives better.) I wrote this long email about how he helped me to change my perspective and infuse my passion for healthcare provided in the right way. I told him I couldn’t imagine my career without him and his amazing coaches guiding us on this journey.
In the car, we talked about culture and about where we are at as an organization with all the different perspectives on how to live and work post-pandemic. Quint is telling everyone that he loves them. (Awkward) We talked about this, and we asked ourselves what type of organization do we want to be - telling everyone we love them or … ? We had speakers talking about refreshing our passion and the struggle to create “the” place people want to work. I asked the questions to the moms in the car. If you give your kids everything they want without love and engagement (forced vacations, school, chores) … would you have raised good people?
This at ISH is also hard stuff. Not fluff. 5/10, Standards of Behavior, dress codes, measuring patient and employee satisfaction, being nice, and all the other stuff that we do makes us better, makes healthcare better and is the right thing to do.
Life is really short, and we have few chances to make differences. If we can change life for the better through hard work and hugs (…uh…) and saying love (… sigh …) and admitting when we are wrong with grace and humility … we can have the power of a Quint Studer or Oprah Winfrey. And - at the end of our lives, wouldn’t it be great to say “we made a difference”?
