Happiness as a strategy?

Improving the wellness of our team and those we serve

I recently attended our annual MUSC Health affiliates and partners conference (kudos to Matt Severance and team for putting on a great event) and have been thinking about the keynote presentation by health care strategist Nicholas Webb, who talked about happiness as an imperative strategy for delivering on our mission at MUSC. In his report, "Happy Work," Webb shares his philosophy on post-COVID employee engagement:

"Evidence is showing that the COVID-19 pandemic did much more than kill or sicken hundreds of thousands of Americans. The necessary shutdowns of entire industries sent millions of workers home, where over more than a year, they had the opportunity to reflect on their careers. Many asked themselves, 'What do I really want?' The post-COVID economy has been characterized by workers at all levels showing a reluctance to go back to 'business as usual.' They see an opportunity to break free and do something better than what they did before. Post-COVID, companies large and small found themselves competing for the best workers. They learned this simple rule: There are unemployed people, and there are talented people, but there are very few unemployed talented people. Every aspect of your day-to-day operations should be fueled by great people who are energized and excited about serving your customers and enterprise, which ultimately fulfills your mission. To hire and retain the best people, you need Happiness as a Strategy."

We talk a lot about wellness and well-being (or lack thereof) and burnout at MUSC and what that looks like for our team members, patients, students and faculty - the MUSC family. Listening to Webb's presentation led me to think that what we are trying to "capture in a jar" is the creation of a culture of happiness, which in many ways is a critical prerequisite to sustaining MUSC's culture of innovation.

Why is this important to us? Achieving our vision and realizing the full positive potential of our mission requires offering the best services, the best programs and the best discoveries. But, it's not enough. We also need the best ecosystem, or culture, we can possibly have as we move forward because that is what fuels our innovation, the impact we have as a result of that innovation and our ability to influence others to embrace the transformation that needs to occur in health care. So, happiness matters.

Which brings me to the next question: What is happiness?

Mahatma Gandhi said that "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." At more of a ground level, one theory suggests that happiness can be described as three distinct elements chosen for their own sakes: positive emotion, engagement and meaning. These three elements are believed to be more measurable and definitive than happiness.

So, is creating and sustaining a culture of happiness achievable in the high-stress, high-demand world of health care? By nature, I’m a glass half full kind of guy, so maybe that's why this "touchy-feely" concept of meaningful and thoughtful ways of increasing team member and stakeholder happiness strikes a chord with me. But, if we think about these three major elements of happiness - positive emotion, engagement and meaning - it's clear that they are fundamentally embedded in what we do as an enterprise. At the end of every day, health care is about people and having a positive impact on their lives, no matter your role in education, research or patient care. Our work is dedicated to making or keeping people well, solving their medical problems, preventing disease, finding cures and lengthening lives. If we are doing this well, it should lead to positive emotion, engagement and meaning, creating a positive feedback loop in which the work we do generates happy employees who lead and create better work outcomes, consequently leading to greater and increased happiness for ourselves and those we serve.

I believe that achieving a culture of happiness within our current environment isn't a desirable pipe dream; it's a reality that we can grasp if we are strategic and sincere in our approach.

An author and technology CEO with more than 40 U.S. patents, Webb talked about three core concepts that he believes enable the best organizations to thrive and grow despite the massive disruptions occurring in our industry:

1: Embrace customer, employee and stakeholder happiness.
2: Go beyond "customer experience" to create a deeper connection with those you serve.
3: Relentlessly pursue innovation to stay ahead and create unexpected value.

Let's focus on number 1 (we can save number 2 and number 3 for another day). We can't expect unhappy team members to make our patients, students and all of our stakeholders happy - that's ridiculous. It's also ridiculous to think that a one-size-fits-all approach to "happiness" at MUSC would work, either. It's going to require each one of us to engage, or in some cases reengage, and support the culture and institution that we would like to become. Abraham Lincoln said more than 150 years ago that "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be," and it's as true today as when he first said it.

So where do we start? Well, we're working on defining what happiness, and wellness, looks like at MUSC. Remember that climate survey from a couple of months ago? That's going to help leaders to better to understand what we need to do to create a better work culture and environment - i.e., more happiness. Have you heard about OurDay? Merging, replacing and retiring antiquated systems and processes that make people's jobs harder in the 21st century is an example of trying to improve positive emotion and engagement, i.e., happiness, for our team. For me, some of my happiness comes from knowing that our core values and corporate responsibility align well with our mission and our vision, and that we are making measurable and positive gains toward achieving the goals outlined in our OneMUSC strategic plan. Remember, "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

Being able to pursue your passion and turning challenges into opportunities might be another source of happiness. Feeling like you belong, a cornerstone of our work to be a more diverse, inclusive and equitable organization, is a source of happiness for all of us, I would think. Being noticed, included, respected, heard and appreciated in ways that you find meaningful would make most people happy.

What makes you happy at MUSC? Are you helping others to find happiness, too? I believe that by providing opportunities to develop professionally, by offering connectivity to programs and services specific to the health and wellness of our team, by creating a culture where the bold sharing of one's imagination and creativity is genuinely valued and leads to dynamic innovation, not only will morale skyrocket, we will be on the road to creating more happiness at MUSC.

But we're going even bigger than that with the creation of a team of diverse professionals who are looking at what we need to do, enterprise-wide, to serve the health, wellness and yes, the happiness of our MUSC family. And while the pandemic has led us, professionally and personally, to reevaluate what it means to be well and happy, during this time of transformation, we also know that what we do and how we do our work from day to day is the key to making those we serve happy, which, ultimately, serves to inspire us and create meaning and fulfillment, both in our lives and jobs, each and every day.