Dear KP colleagues, 

Our public policy work is helping people in Washington and state capitals rethink how care can be delivered and should be delivered. 

We have a lot of things working together very nicely to move us in good directions. 

Our whole agenda reminds me a little of an experience I had a few months ago with the members of our dragon boat team at the Kaiser Permanente International Dragon Boat Races held in San Francisco Bay.  We sponsor the tournament, and we have several teams competing. Our team members work incredibly hard — and want very much to win — but they tell me that winning is only one part of the joy of being a dragon boat team member. The real point, the paddlers tell me, is winning as a team. And "having a great race" as a team. 

This year, I asked several team members exactly what it meant to "have a great race." 

What they told me was that having a great race is about teamness — functioning as a team — paddling as a team — the joy of being in sync as a team. Complete sync. Twenty people paddle those long skinny boats. Ten on a side. The drummer on the bow beats a beat and the paddlers paddle in perfect synchronization — up, down, back, up, down, back, etc., for the full length of the race. Dragon boat racing is completely and entirely a team sport. The team functions as a unit. When the boat is truly in the groove, the paddles move in perfect harmony with each other. It's lovely to see — and team members tell me it feels very good and very right to do. 

I had one team member about my age tell me, "Sometimes for the last fifty yards, I am so tired I can hardly lift the paddle — but I know that the team needs me to be there in perfect stroke with every one else on the team. So I keep on the stroke even when my arms are so heavy it's hard to lift the paddle." 

Another team member told me, "When we do it right — when we are all in perfect sync and we feel the boat moving through the water as we make each stroke, it feels like we are running the perfect race." 

Another team member told me — "I do it for the sheer joy of that sense of being a part of the team. It's about being a team. We often win — and that's good — but the real lift to me comes from running the perfect team race, not just winning. It's a team reward and a team effort." 

I found that to be an interesting insight. Being part of a team that does everything well and in sync can be an end in itself. 

Reminiscing a bit at the end of the year, I have a feeling that that is sort of what we want to do with our own larger team and with our local teams at Kaiser Permanente. We — more than anyone in health care — have the opportunity to be the perfect system. We have all the pieces — doctors, nurses, lab technicians, radiology technicians, pharmacists, schedulers, phone advisors, health educators, health aides, counselors, therapists, and every other category of caregiver. Our team has sales, marketing, finance, human resources, information technology, legal, and other categories of professionals who help us to operate a strong business that serves our customers, members, and communities. We are all one team. We are putting together both local care teams and a sort of health care mega boat — using systems that give only us "all of the information, about all of the patients, all of the time" — to deliver care, improve care and promote health in ways that splintered, siloed, unorganized and perversely incented non Kaiser Permanente health care organizations can't begin to do. 

I keep saying that Kaiser Permanente is a great place to be, and this is a great time to be here. We have a chance to be the very best — the best for patients and our communities and the best for every one on the team — if we collectively take this opportunity to work as a team to run — or paddle — the perfect race.  My sense at the races every year is that our dragon boat teams understand that possibility and the dragon boat team members know how good it can feel to really get it right. 
So I am celebrating both those teams and the whole idea of us all getting it right. Winning is wonderful. Winning by collectively doing the perfect race is even better. 

Have a great week. We had a great year. 

Be well. 
George