Strategy #23: Surprise people

Everybody loves surprises (well, at least everyone loves pleasant surprises). What are some simple things that you can do to surprise people. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, it probably shouldn’t. Here are some examples with which I’m personally familiar:
Leigh Cox, CEO of Navapache Regional Medical Center in Show Low, Arizona rented the local movie theater so that everyone on his staff could go to a private showing of Patch Adams (family members welcome), as a way of reinforcing his goal of cultivating a more compassionate and light-hearted workplace.

When Patrick Charmel, CEO of Griffin Hospital, introduced The Twelve Core Action Values, he called it “a gift” from the hospital to the people whose work made their mission possible. Seven years later, the training is still ongoing, and more than a quarter of the hospital’s staff have participated. As one of the first organizations to adopt what was then a relatively new and still-evolving curriculum, Pat had the courage to take a risk that there could be more than one type of surprise along the way.

Phil Feisal, CEO of Allen Bennett Memorial Hospital (part of Greenville Hospital System in South Carolina) gave each member of his management team a copy of my book The Healing Tree and companion study guide Healing the Hospital as a way of encouraging their focus on patient-centered healthcare (you can read book excerpts and download the entire study guide at www.Healing-Story.com).

Among many other special activities they perform on behalf of their coworkers, the Spark Plug group at West Central sent Sugar Daddies with paychecks on Fathers’ Day as a way of recognizing the special contributions of all the Dads.

I recently happened to see part of a television special on notable boxing matches.  In one, when the bell sounded to end the round, a fighter returned to his corner only to find that the trainer was sitting on his stool.  The trainer told his boxer that since he’d been loafing out there in the ring, he couldn’t possibly be tired enough to need to sit down.  The shocked fighter’s jaw dropped and his tooth guard fell to the canvas.  When he was later interviewed, the trainer said that he needed to surprise his fighter, to literally shock him awake. That’s a great metaphor – when you surprise people (hopefully not by taking their chairs away) you keep them awake – and none of us should go through life half asleep.

Try it yourself. What is some fun little thing you can do this week to surprise the people in your organization? One thing’s for sure – if you surprise them, they’ll tell others about it (including people you would like to have come work for your organization).

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