Traditions Old and New

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about tradition.

At the Gopalakrishnan house, that means football, time with family, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in the background, turkey on the table … and a little something special from home: Rudy’s BBQ. Yes, even with all the holiday classics, I make sure there’s good old-fashioned Texas BBQ on the table.  Some traditions are just too good to skip.

Here at GBMC, I’ve quickly learned we have some pretty great traditions of our own. In the first few months, I have been part of our annual GBMC crab feast for the medical staff, blowing of a ram’s horn to signify the start of Rosh Hashanah, talented volunteers playing the piano as you walk through the hospital, and even the naming of our parking garages after flowers (interesting).  However, my favorite to date is our annual turkey giveaway.

I’ll be honest – before coming here, I’d never worked anywhere that handed out whole frozen turkeys to employees before the holidays. At first, I thought it was a little crazy. But then I thought … it’s also kind of awesome. So I did a little digging.

It turns out the practice of giving turkeys to workers dates back to the 1800s in the U.S. It started as a way to introduce immigrant workers to American culture and grew into a common gesture of appreciation.

I asked around, and no one seemed to know when we started doing it at GBMC! So, I’m putting this out to you, dear reader: Who knows how far back our GBMC turkey tradition goes? Between our long-time employees and retirees, someone out there has the answer!

What I do know is this – greeting so many of you on November 12 as you picked up your turkeys was one of the highlights of my month. It was a fun day, but more importantly, it was a chance to say thank you. Because no matter how you celebrate Thanksgiving, appreciation is at the heart of it, and that’s what this tradition is really about.

Speaking of Appreciation …

I’m thrilled – and grateful – that 68% of our workforce completed the employee engagement survey. That’s a 31% increase from last year, and it speaks volumes. So many of you took the time to share your thoughts to help me make GBMC the best place to work.  I don’t take that responsibility lightly!  Thank you.

There are two quotes that come to mind as I think about my responsibility to all of you:  “You have to earn your leadership every day” and “the best feedback is what we don’t want to hear.”  As I promised, I plan to read every comment that was written and use that information to make GBMC HealthCare an even better place to work.  

So, what’s next? In December, we’ll review the results with our leadership team. In early January, we’ll share those results with all staff, both at the system and team levels. Every leader will be expected to review their team’s results, build an individualized engagement plan, and share that plan with their team.  

And in the meantime, if you’ve got a favorite GBMC tradition (or if you know the real history of the GBMC turkeys), let me know!