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The Mystery of the Silver Plate

Dear Readers,

About ten years ago, I had the privilege of going to Singapore as a visiting professor, sponsored by the Department of Health. The experience was intense and rewarding: I performed instructional surgery in the mornings, gave lectures in the afternoons, and was treated to large quantities of delicious food every night. My gracious hosts were eager to learn and generous with their hospitality. When I departed, I was presented with an engraved silver plate to commemorate the visit. It is a prized possession that now hangs in my examining room.

Before long the plate became tarnished, as unattended silver tends to do. I occasionally took the plate home to polish it, but eventually gave that up after recognizing that the "natural look" did not diminish my affectionate recollections of a wonderful experience.

While examining a patient a few months ago, I was surprised to see that the plate was shiny and bright, just like new. I had suspicions about who might have taken the effort to clean it, but a few inquiries showed those assumptions to be incorrect. A couple of new leads in the mystery of the silver plate have recently come to light, however, and the primary suspect is a Mayo Clinic Jacksonville employee whom I'm pretty sure I've never met. My source indicates that the clandestine polisher wishes to remain anonymous, so perhaps this column will serve as an indirect word of thanks.

What does this anecdote have to do with anything? Well, it says a lot to me about why Mayo Clinic has been recognized, for the third consecutive year, as one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Places to Work For." The criteria for this award include tangible factors such as compensation, benefits, and opportunities for employee development, but consideration also is given to a number of less tangible but equally important variables such as institutional respect, pride, fairness, and credibility. To be sure, an organization can craft policies that promote an attractive workplace, but it is great employees who imbue that workplace with meaning, purpose, and even joy. Great staff who do thoughtful things for others without consideration of personal recognition or reward. Great people who, more than policies, make Mayo Clinic a best place to work.

A successful CEO who is both a Mayo patient and benefactor once summed up his company's business philosophy for me as follows: "We don't worry about meeting the needs of our customers. We worry about meeting the needs of our employees." The implication, of course, is not that customers are unimportant but rather that a satisfied staff will naturally work much harder than an unhappy workforce to serve their customers' needs. Such a philosophy might be hard for Mayo Clinic to embrace explicitly given that our core value for decades has been "The needs of the patient come first." But I believe that our patients receive great care in large part because we have great employees, a staff that is mission driven and proud to be working with (and for) like-minded people. Serving each other as we seek to meet your needs is a dual privilege, for which we thank you.

Sincerely,

George B. Bartley, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer