Journal of Sacred Work

Loving Cultures are contagious. So are cultures of mediocrity. – Erie Chapman

   It’s an old story and I’ve told it before. But the story deserves another telling. Three bricklayers were working on a project in New York City. Each was asked what he was doing. "I’m laying bricks," the first one said, a bored expression on his face. "I’m building a wall," the second man said with a little more enthusiam. The third bricklayer smiled, raised his eyes to the sky, and answered, "I’m building a great cathedral."
      Motivation matters. Where does it come from? What is the energy that fuels our daily efforts?
      Not everyone is motivated by high purpose, but the best caregivers always are. We want to feel that our work and the effort we put into it, have meaning. Our role as caregivers and as leaders is to breathe this meaning into our work. AS Nietzsche wrote long ago and Dr. Viktor Frankl taught more recently, "He (or she) who has a why can bear almost any how." …

   When we commit to high purpose work, our energy rises. But what if we don’t value the work we’re doing? What if the place I work is second rate and my team isn’t motivated? What if we’re not building a cathedral but just putting one foot in front of the other – laying bricks in monotonous repetition?
   Organizations that reach for the stars have three characteristics: 1) They set a goal that is clear, lofty and reachable, 2) they believe in their ability to reach that goal, 3) they are energetic and persistent. Goal, belief, persistence. These are the three essentials of success.
   Great leaders don’t always have to do a lot of pushing if the goal is clear and exciting. The goal itself provides an organizing strategy. Growing a culture of loving generates contagious energy.

   Fortunately, there are thousands of examples of success along with the millions of examples of mediocrity. Imagine the energy of the many members of the Apollo 11 space program in the ’60s. The goal was crystal clear and deeply exciting – to land a person on the Moon! Scientists determined it would be difficult but achievable. Imagine each members’s commitment to excellence. The culture of that team was a vortex of energy that  demanded the best from everyone!
   Building a culture of loving care has elements that come clear when we pose the challenge of my Mother Test: What is the kind of experience I would like my mother to have if she were admitted to a charity where I worked? Closely connected to that is another key question: What kind of work environment will attract and retain the best staff?
   Here is the bricklayer story applied to healthcare as three hypothetical people describe their work as Radiologic Technologists:
"I’m a button pusher." (an actual line I’ve heard)
"I’m an X-ray tech."
"I’m a caregiver at the Mayo Clinic."
 
    We grew a powerful culture of loving care during the time I was CEO at the giant Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus in the ’80s and ’90s.  This culture dramatically energized employee commitment, patient satisfaction, clinical excellence, and financial performance. Soon, every capable healthcare worker in the area wanted to work at Riverside (one year, we had 30,000 applications for 800 job openings!) And every employee felt confident that their loved one would receive quality loving care if they needed to be admitted. We consistently passed the only test that mattered: The Mother Test. By 1991, Riverside Methodist had gone from anonymity to a ranking as one of the top ten hospitals in the country (ABC News Report) and was ranked with the Mayo Clinic and Boston’s Beth Israel as one of the top three hospitals to work for in America (Service Excellence, by Ron Zemke).
   The same thing happened at Baptist Hospital in Nashville after the loving culture was planted there in 1998 and bloomed full in 2001 and ’02. As Joel Barker wrote in these powerful lines: "Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world." 
  Loving cultures are contagious. Baptist Hospital partner Lois Powers exemplified the energy of this contagion. When I complimented her one day on her great work as a cashier, she said to me, "I’m not a cashier, I’m a caregiver!"
   Lois was no longer laying bricks, she was building a great cathedral.

-Erie Chapman