Thread by @DrEricLevi

I asked the local faculty, “What makes this place a centre of excellence?”

In unison they said “The people and the culture.”

Absolutely. The mark of greatness is not the facility or the set up. It’s always the people and the culture that make the difference.

You can have the best facilities in the world and feel totally unwelcomed and unappreciated. You can have the state of the art toys and feel like it’s a competition rather than collaboration. You can have the brightest minds at work who do not support each other.

You can have the best facilities but still have a toxic workplace culture that demeans people.

It’s people, people. The key to greatness is the people and the culture they build around them.

I can sense the culture of the institution by sitting in a cafeteria and listening to various “tribal” specialty conversations.

I can observe how the faculty members relate to each other. Are they in competition against or collaborative with each other?

In simple terms, do members of the surgical unit actually like working with each other?

Next step, do they like working with those of other specialties?

It’s fascinating to note that I have not heard a single negative word uttered against another specialty craft group. This is good medicine. Collaborating for the same goal: patient care.

And by the way, whatever I observe, the patients observe too.

Patients can sense the culture of the place as much as I can.