A Culture of Elegance

“Curmudge, we recently discussed examples of poor organizational cultures in Curmudgeon’s Wastebasket. Judging from today’s title, we must be at the opposite end of the cultural scale.”

“We are, Jaded Julie, and we’d better begin by defining elegance in the context of our discussion. It’s more than dressing and behaving properly—as the Italians call it, la bella figura. To me, elegance is being a little bit better than excellent in every respect. It’s the perception that we want to impart to patients whenever they walk into one of our hospitals or clinics. It’s fully deployed personalized care that gives a patient the feeling that the right things will be done right the first time every time. I’ve never been to the Mayo Clinic, but I suspect that they have it.”

“That sounds great, Curmudge. You’ve actually experienced this?”

“Let’s start with a classical example, the cathedrals of Europe. The elegance of their construction and decoration suggests that, to a degree, they were a labor of love (plus a lot of hard work by generations of laborers and artisans).”

“The next time you go, I’d like to tag along. Do you suppose Mrs. Curmudgeon might object?”

“There are examples of elegance a lot closer to home. Let’s step back in time about 30 years. When a new person joined the organization where I was working, he or she soon realized, ‘Here I am in an organization known across the world for its high quality. I’m going to do my personal best—or even better—to achieve that standard.’ And they proceeded to meet or exceed their own expectations.”

“You must have had a powerful corporate training program.”

“There was nothing formal. It was individual-to-individual and often peer-to-peer. Although it is hard to explain, it was undoubtedly aided by the organization’s collegial atmosphere. Everyone from the front office to the person who washed dishes in the corner of the basement was respected for the quality of their work. Back in the days when all incoming calls came into the switchboard our operator was able to greet many of the callers by recognizing the sound of their voice. She listened carefully, remembered, and performed with élan.”

“Wow, that was elegant service beyond anyone’s expectations. There’s more?”

“Before personal computers were common, most outgoing documents were typed in the secretarial pool. The woman in charge knew that the documents were the face of our organization, so she demanded perfection. Style (from our Style Manual), spelling, punctuation—when the documents went out the door, they were elegant. Forty years later, the women that she trained and the people for whom they typed are still perfectionists.”

“I guess that explains, Curmudge, why you go ballistic when you see a typo. Are you aware of examples of elegance in health care?”

“Here’s another personal example. When I had surgery on my ear, the surgeon insisted on grafting skin from behind my ear to cover the surgical site. I mentioned that no one cares what an old man’s ear looks like. He said that he did and that he didn’t want any of his patients going around with a scarred-up ear. In this case, elegance was the physician’s personal requirement that reflected his pride in his workmanship.”

“Gosh, Curmudge, I suspect the surgeon’s feeling is pretty widespread in health care. I wish everyone felt that way.”

“Okay, here’s a lesson for everyone and it’s one with which I fully agree. It’s from a 1950’s Constitution (Rule of Life) of Religious Women who ministered in Catholic schools and hospitals throughout the world. It’s called The Perfection of Our Ordinary Actions. ‘The perfection of the…soul depends not so much on performing extraordinary actions as on performing extraordinarily well the ordinary exercises of every day.’ ‘…do each work as if it were the only one (you) had to do.’ The sisters might not agree with my choice of words, but everyone’s adherence to that passage is exactly what is needed to create an elegant organization.”

“Right on! That’s something we should all hardwire. So, Curmudge, what’s the bottom line? What do we take home from today’s discussion?”

“I hope you recall, Julie, our discussion of personal brands a year ago, on March 18, 2009. We said that the corporate brand of an organization is the aggregate of the personal brands of its employees. When elegance in performance has become a major part of everyone’s personal brand, elegance will join personalized care as a hallmark of our organization.”

“Curmudge, if we’re not there already, I hope we get there soon.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon