Input

How many ways are there to find out what people are really thinking, feeling, hoping, wanting? Especially when it comes to work -- the place where we spend most of our waking hours, the promise of a door being always open, welcoming calls or e-mails, and/or encouraging input is often shared easily, but not always as easy to execute. This week I was in Orlando speaking at a conference and had some downtime to think about the things I set out to do this year with respect to work and getting more input and acting on that input. Am pleased that we were able to have our All Employee Meeting earlier in the year and that we are acting on some of the input received -- though not as quickly as hoped for in all cases. However, I also had an epiphany while I was gone, that I have been thinking of input too narrowly and much too one way. So, I want to share some input with the teams that make up our department.
To the newest members of the department I offer the following. I marvel at the passion and energy displayed by the School Outreach and Development team in sharing their knowledge and expertise with students and educators. The mission driven Community Health team continues to meet the needs of internal and external clients helping to bring meaning to BJC's commitment to wellness. The OASIS team has reached more and more senior adults with innovative programs that not only engage, but that also allows these seasoned citizens to give back. From recognizing employees as health heroes to developing and executing healthy food choice pilots in our cafeterias to defining health literacy, the Health Literacy team has lead the way and those inside and outside of BJC have taken notice. I am so pleased to have welcomed these divisions into the family.
Expanding BJC's reach to underserved communities with welcomed and value-added services such as the thriving Healthy Mind Body Spirit initiative and the mobile health partnership with the Urban League, the Community Affairs teams continues to help bring our community benefit mission to life. And speaking of Community Benefit, the one-woman team (with a lot of collaborative help) responsible for collecting and verifying BJC's community benefit data does a great job of finding the numbers that has allowed us to annually report higher numbers.
When demand for your services grows and grows, it means you must be doing something right and this is what has occurred for the Creative Services team. They have produced outstanding design and graphic work for clients across BJC. Tackling the migration of all of BJC's websites to an outside vendor, while assisting clients with their web service needs has kept the Interactive Services team busy this year and they have met the challenges with professionalism and grace under pressure. Providing strategic guidance and outstanding support to clients has kept the Marketing team busy and like others, demand for their services has continued to grow. The Media Services team approaches their assignments with a client-centered approach that is appreciated and yields a product that is valued by the primary, secondary and tertiary clients. Twice a month, the BJC Today team delivers the one product (other than our paychecks) that unites all of us as BJC employees. The newspaper does a great job reflecting what is going on across our organization and is a 'good read.' And to the Communications team members who provide stratetic guidance, oversight and ideas on how we can all be better, I marvel at your talent and dedication.
I hope you all know that the work you do each and every day is appreciated and valued. It is through you that so much of the story of BJC gets told. So please accept this input as my heartfelt thanks. I also encourage you to get to know more about the work done by your colleagues. You will be as impressed as I am.