The True Power of Community – Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

by Jason A. Wolf, PhD, CPXP, Monday, September 14, 2020

Grounded in a shared and lived experience, co-created by a global community of voices who lead, live and innovate experience every day; those ideas represent the seeds from where every positive healthcare experience should spring. Those ideas are the foundation on which this community was born.

Ten years ago today, September 14, The Beryl Institute community opened its doors as a global community of practice and formal membership community. The first member joined that morning. He was from India. With that single commitment, the dreams and the possibilities of many, rooted in the idea that we could create a space for learning, collaboration and connection that could change the face of healthcare, were realized.

In reflecting on the ten years since that moment, there is one constant that I see and have seen in every encounter with our members – a true generosity; a sense of something bigger than one’s self; a commitment that in healthcare we are called to something beyond just the task. We are rooted in purpose and called to serve. This sense of connection, and yes, this sense of family, has served as the catalyst for the Institute’s growth over these years, from a possibility to an active global voice for what is possible in healthcare committed to ensuring an unwavering commitment to the human experience.

From the start, in defining patient experience as something more than satisfaction or survey scores, as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care, we recognized the broad, complex and exciting opportunity a conversation on experience and a commitment to action would bring to healthcare. We have worked diligently every day, inspired by that definition built from the voices of this community, to ensure that we recognize every interaction matters, the type of organizations we build and how we lead matters, that every touchpoint across the continuum matters and the ultimate measure of our success is found in the perceptions of patients, family members and care partners. This idea remains the backbone of our work.

From framing a globally accepted definition of patient experience to supporting small grants that have catalyzed lessons on improvement at the point of care, from building a comprehensive PX Body of Knowledge through the contributions of over 1000 community voices to expanding evidence via Patient Experience Journal, which is accessed 16,000 times a month in over 200 countries and territories, the growing story of the experience movement is not just The Beryl Institute’s story, it is our shared story.

Our history over this decade has been one of raising the conversation through research, such as the State of Patient Experience studies, a comprehensive library of white papers, to our most recent addition, PX Pulse; all this work has come from this community. We have never claimed to be the experts dictating how to tackle your work or what model to use from some isolated office you never see. Rather, we have worked in every moment to foster a vibrant, living network, sparked from the expertise of all who have committed to the experience conversation. While we have been able to hold the space for and catalyze the opportunity to contribute, this decade represents a powerful and moving tapestry of possibility and hope, practice and process that when woven together reflects the true essence of who we are, and more so who we are together – community.

I often share the quote from Helen Keller, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” For in those words, she captured what we have been able to achieve. While we celebrate ten years of the Institute, it is not about the Institute at all. What we have achieved has been because you, a collection of diverse, dispersed, passionate and committed human beings, who have remained committed to the idea that the experience people have in healthcare – for both those delivering and receiving care – matters. It is personal; we can feel it, and we can impact it in profoundly positive ways.

This journey of a decade of “doing much together,” helped lead to where we find ourselves today. I have been fortunate to travel the world to be with so many of you, to stand on almost every continent in service to our community. To see the efforts of experience excellence from Latin and South America to Asia, Europe and the Middle East to Australia, Africa to North America, one fundamental I continue to share is that no matter where I stand, when I ask the question “how many people here are human beings,” all hands stand tall. The humanity is palpable. That humanity is more critical now than ever before.

And now, just over a year after introducing a robust Experience Framework, reinforcing a comprehensive view of experience grounded in eight strategic lenses, we find ourself in a once in a lifetime moment trying to create a sense of consistency in the face of crisis, to sip life from exhaustion, to find hope in the deepest moments of sorrow. That too is our reality; that too is part of our journey; and how this community has chosen to reach out, connect and rise may be the most moving and satisfying moment I have experienced in our journey together. As we rapidly moved to elevate our strengths as a virtual community, noting “we were built for this,” we realized we could not waiver in our focus or commitment to all we have done together.

Our community voices shaped the Future of Human Experience  just months ago as a call to action for the next decade and now is guiding an exploration of what New Existence must look like in action as we traverse our current health crisis and beyond. This work reflects all that has been true about how we have come together over that last ten years. In a moment that could stop us, to borrow from the great Maya Angelou, we rise. And rise we will as we look to what is next. So, as you review and reflect on our history, know it reflects the elegant foundation for the future we together helped lay.

Coretta Scott King once said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” I feel she was talking about you. From the floor of our very first Patient Experience Conference, a conference participant in the small conference room of just 150 people stood at the end as I asked people for their reflections and said, “I now know I am not alone in this work.” You are not alone, for it has been the compassionate actions of so many that have made reaching this milestone possible. You have all stood and declared “I am the patient experience,” but you too in more subtle ways have also acknowledged “I am because you are.”

That is our reality at the Institute. From the Institute Team who brought these ideas to life to our members and our community, I can only say that we are because of you. This moment is humbling, this moment is moving and this moment is inspiring. For in all we have done to get to this point in time, even in the face of a crisis we could have never imagined, we are strong and ready, we are community, we are The Beryl Institute and we are only that because of all of you. So, thank you for the opportunity you have given us and for the commitment to one another you express every day. That is ultimately all the future of healthcare can ask for, and it is a gift that will be remembered forever. Happy Anniversary!

Jason A. Wolf, PhD, CPXP
President and CEO
The Beryl Institute