The Calling

"This idea that you connect your passions to your career–when you truly do that, it becomes your life. It’s why I still pop out of bed every morning."  – Scott Griffith, Chairman and CEO of Zipcar

               

It may surprise you (I know it surprises ME!) to know that our youngest son, Harrison Payne Prehn, is a poet, writer and a hard-core urban rap artist.  How did a skinny, half-Cuban Louisiana kid, son of two psychologists, grow up to idolize Macklemore and release three hard core rap CDs himself (under his alias “Max Tringham”)?  Worried about the hard-knocks world of entertainment, I ask him recently, “Harrison, why on earth did you decide to become an rap artist?”  He smiled and replied:  “What makes you think I had a choice?”  Like many who are passionate about their careers, he felt a compulsion…an unrelenting need…a “calling” to do what he does.  Is it just a coincidence that the word “vocation” meaning career is derived from the same Latin root “voca” that it shares with “vocal” as in calling?

Are you “called” to serve others in healthcare?  Are you passionate about what you do, driven to get better every day?  Or are you just punching the clock? 

The foundation of The Calling is found in Meaningful Work that serves a Purpose.  When you believe—strike that—when you know that what you do every single day is important, meaningful and serves a purpose, that knowledge  drives the passion that calls you to that career. 

This month our hospital rolled out our new Signature Service framework that supports our Common Purpose.  We’ve defined our Common Purpose—the reason we are “called” to the work we do as “We Care For Life.”  And how do we care for life?  It is through our service as framed by four defined behaviors:  Safety ~ Compassion ~ Professionalism and ~ Efficiency.  A good way to remember these four is with the acronym “SCoPE.”  If you come to work every day focused on making sure patients are Safe, showing Compassion for  patients and your fellow associates in all you do, acting like the Professional that you are, and doing your work in a manner that is Efficient and helps the organization manage resources…well, then, you have heard The Calling. 

Making Magical Moments

Before coming to The Bradley Center in 2011, I was CEO of Meadowbrook Specialty Hospital, an 86-bed critical care hospital, in Lafayette Louisiana.  Meadowbrook cared for patients with critical conditions like severe wounds, chronic infections and patients with pulmonary conditions that required long term mechanical ventilation.  Most of our patients stayed in the hospital for 30 days or more.  It was a tough patient population to take care of, very sick patients with complicated medical needs but we had a great staff that provided great care on a daily basis.

In 2009, the melting snow from a heavy winter up north was causing the Mississippi River to flood further south.  The flooding was threatening the levees and the city of New Orleans itself.  Slightly upriver from New Orleans is the Bonne Carre Spillway, a series of locks along the river that can be opened and drain the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya Basin, flooding the basis but saving the city.  The governor made the tough decision to open the Spillway.  One of our patients at the time, Mr. Nelson Landry, confided in his physical therapist, Patricia Simione, that he was scared because his home was in the Basin and he feared he’d lose what few possessions he had, including his family bible that dated back generations.   Patricia reassured him that it would be alright.  

What Patricia did next was remarkable:  The next morning, a Saturday, she borrowed Mr Landry’s keys, rounded up a couple of fellow staff members and the hospital van, and drove to Butte LaRose deep in the Atchafalaya.  They secured Mr Landry’s home and belongings, sandbagged the property, turned on the pump and brought back specific items that Mr Landry had asked for.

Patricia never said a word to me about it, nor did any of her colleagues.  The only reason I know the story is because Mr Landry told me about it Monday morning, as he lay in his bed at the hospital, clutching his family bible, tears in his eyes.  

Disney calls it “making magical moments:” Seeing the world through your customer’s eyes, determining what they might want, and then acting before you are asked. That simple act is all the difference between good and great.  And because of Patricia's ability to "make magic", Mr. Landry thinks that little 'ol Meadowbrook Hospital is the best hospital in America.

That Championship Character

 “Champions do not become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their championship character.”
- T. Alan Armstrong

Like many of you, I watched A LOT of basketball in March (and I wish I could say I had a strong March Madness bracket but, sadly, not…finishing in the “prestigious” last place spot in the Annual Cawley Johnson March Madness pool!).  I saw some incredible play, fantastic teamwork and almost impossible shots.  And it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement  and think of the tourney as just a couple intense weeks in March, but in reality these kids have spent years…thousands of hours…hundreds of games preparing for that one game we’re watching.  Literally, as Alan Armstrong says, the game is merely the demonstration of their dedication, their championship character.

And as I thought more about dedication demonstrating championship character, I thought of a conversation I had with my daughter, Isabella, last weekend.  ‘Bella is a surgical tech and in her last year of nursing school at Our Lady of the Lake Medical College in Baton Rouge and I am constantly amazed at the amount of course work, studying and clinicals – in addition to her job -- that she has to tackle on a regular basis and the dedication it takes to succeed.  For the first time in her entire life, she missed the entire 2 week Mardi Gras celebration at our home in New Orleans because she was studying and had clinical assignments on the weekends.  She missed our annual St Patrick’s Day celebration in Baton Rouge because she was working.  And although she lives less than two hours from New Orleans, we haven’t seen her since Christmas.  In spite of it all,  she was telling me how excited she was about her studies and her impending graduation in December.  And I told her:  “Graduation won’t be just a day you’ve waited for for years, it will be a demonstration of your championship character.”

So, ask yourself:  How hard have you truly pushed yourself to get to where you are in your life today? Is there more you could be doing?  What are some significant victories you’ve experienced because of your dedication to investing the time and effort needed to win?  And finally, what can you do to be a role model of championship character to others at work, home and in the community? Your life, lived well, should be a daily demonstration of your championship character.  

We Care For Life

"Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work."  – William Ward

This week, the management team from The Bradley Center participated in a 6-hour leadership training session on St Francis Hospital’s new Disney-inspired Signature Service that will roll out hospital-wide in April.  It’s hard to imagine that the Signature Service journey started over a year ago with our initial engagement with the Disney Institute and their initial evaluation of the state of customer service at St Francis.  Then 10 work groups made up of your fellow SFH associates took on the enormous task of tackling 10 core issues that together framed Signature Service…things like associate selection, training, orientation, reward & recognition, physical environment, leader behaviors, communication and so forth.  These teams met weekly for the past year, defining the challenges, formulating solutions.  Hundreds of hours of work by these volunteers.  And one team had perhaps the biggest challenge of all:  Defining our “Common Purpose.”

Have you ever been to a Disney park?  What do you remember?  Was it the rides? No, all amusement parks have rides.  Was it the food?  Nah, all parks have food.  You know what people remember about Disney:  The experience, the way the “cast members” of Disney made them feel.  And the consistency of the experience:  Every place you go, every cast member you meet, every day is consistently “magical”.  You see, Disney is defined not by their “mission statement” or their “company policy”, but what they call their “Common Purpose”, the one defining behavior that every associate—from the CEO to the fellow who sweeps the parking lot—share, the one thing they each do every day for every visitor that defines the “Disney Experience.” 

Disney has 65,000 people who work at Disney in Orlando, how does Disney unite them in “making magic”?  It is through a shared Common Purpose.  What is Disney’s “Common Purpose”?  Three little words:  “We Create Happiness.”  My job as CEO?  I create happiness.  Your job as Mickey Mouse?  You create happiness by interacting with the kids.  The shuttle driver’s job?  I create happiness by getting you from your car to the park quickly and effortlessly.  Ask any of the 65,000 cast members what their job is and they’ll tell you:  I Create Happiness.

So what is our Common Purpose at St Francis Hospital and The Bradley Center?  We surveyed associates, interviewed doctors and patients, held focus groups, reviewed the literature, wrote mission/value/vision statements, hundreds of pages of data and notes.  And when we reflected on all that we had found and distilled in down, our Common Purpose became crystal clear:  We Care For Life. 

Yes, I know it’s our marketing slogan.  But isn’t it also why each of us is here each day?  We Care For Life.  Whether you are a Security Guard protecting the campus, a Cook in the kitchen preparing a meal, a Psychiatrist interviewing a patient or a Mental Health Tech doing your 15-minute checks, what do we all have in common?  We Care For Life. 

So that is our uniting principle, our reason for being here, our shared committment:  We Care For Life.  In the “Great Expectations” training in April every associate of St Francis will learn exactly how we care for life in a unified way that will put our patient experiences over the moon.  It’s exciting stuff, be sure to go on ShareLink to register for your session in April!  We Care For Life!