First of all, one of my favorite things to do is watch TV. I like getting lost in the stories that other people make up. I also like to look for things in these stories that may contain life lessons or inspiration that pertain to my everyday life. Now this doesn't happen all that often, but when it does it sticks with me. This past week my wife and I were watching one of our favorite shows - Grey's Anatomy. At the end of the first show of the season one of the characters gave a bit of a speech that really stuck with me - it had to do with responsibility and accountability. I'm going to let you watch that speech and see if it has an impact on you, too.
To set up the scene: Dr. Webber, the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace Hospital has called his surgical staff together. Earlier in the day they had received the rankings of the best teaching hospitals in the country, of which they are one. The previous year Seattle Grace had been ranked #3 in the country, which was a pretty standard position for them year after year, behind only Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic. When this year's rankings came out, however, they found that they had fallen all the way to #12 - behind hospitals they felt were far inferior to theirs. Dr. Webber is now charged with uncovering why this has happened, what the cause is, and what they can do to fix it. Here is what he told his staff:
Think about this in your work life here at LensCrafters. Think about how our results have suffered and how we have allowed it to happen. Now, I am not saying that we are not working hard - we are! Is the speech a little on the harsh side to apply to us? Maybe - but I think you get the picture. I think it is just an excellent example of how we may have gotten complacent, "rested on our laurels", as Dr. Webber says.
Put yourself in his shoes, as a leader. Put yourself in his staffs' shoes, as associates. Put yourself in their patients' shoes. Understand that by getting caught up in the day-to-day "stuff" around us can allow us to settle for less than the best - from associates and from ourselves.
I encourage you to go back and watch the clip again. Put yourself in the different perspectives. Listen to the words and apply them to yourself, to your associates and to all of us here at LensCrafters and in Region 16.
Ever since I saw this scene I have thought about what I have done to allow us to get to this point. What have I allowed from my associates? How am I going to "raise the bar" for my associates? My doctors? My region? Myself?
Am I being a little dramatic? Maybe. But my point is that there can be inspiration and thought-provoking things everywhere in life and it's up to us to pick up on them, use them and pass them on to others when we can. Think about these things as we begin to close out the year and think about how you - right now, today - can begin to have the courage to "ask the tough questions", find the answers and get the ship righted. I know we can do it - as Tony says - "We are the CAN DO region" and I really believe that.
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