Good evening DaVitaLand!

It is Wednesday night, and I am live from Hartford Connecticut.

I left you on Tuesday morning as I was flying to Milwaukee.  I got to visit with an in-center hemo center, a PD clinic, and an HHD clinic, and a strong nephrology group.  It was wonderful, and I came away with positive feelings and 3 issues that need to be followed up on because it seems we are not providing Service Excellence as we aspire to.

Then the 2 hour drive to Chicago, very productive with calls.  Then some meetings in Chicago, followed by a business dinner, followed by calls and email until midnight.

Today, Wednesday, started with a 7:15 meeting and an 8:30 speech at the Taleo Conference.  800 Human Resource executives from around the nation wanted to hear more about your good work and our Village, that was pretty cool.  I wish you all could have been there, you would have been proud.  We shared our imperfections as well as our strengths, and people appreciated our intentionality and aspirations.

After the speech I zoomed back to my room and headed to the gym.  27 solid minutes on the bike, 34 push-ups, 100 crunches, 20×15 curls, and some stretches.  Total of 40 minutes, solid but unimpressive.  Then I zoomed back up to my room to shower again and get ready for 2 consecutive interviews with prospective DaVitans.  Both of them are doing very well where they are, neither had been looking for a job, but our search firm persuaded them both to check us out and now they are both quite interested.  Once again, your positive reputation carried the day!  They both said they had never seen a company with quite the same spirit.  Not everywhere, of course, but a lot more pervasive and energetic than anything they had seen.  And they have both been around. Read more…

Greetings to the Good People of DaVita,

It is Tuesday morning as I type this, I am on a plane from DC to Milwaukee.  Good morning to our Team Health that is 1011 strong as of a couple days ago!

Yesterday was a MM failure – I literally did not get exercise all day.  This is rare for me.  But by the time I got from Portland, Oregon to Washington DC, and hit a big traffic jam to boot, I had to go straight to the dinner.  The dinner did not end until after 9 pm, and I had too much work and felt too tired to hit the gym at the Marriot.  So the Monday minutes were zero, the big zippo, read it and weep.

The good news is the dinner was with Marilyn Tavenner, one of the most senior officials in all of CMS.  She and I discussed lots of general American healthcare issues, but we also were able to cover 3 important kidney care issues.  She is a thoughtful and experienced leader, with a background in hospitals as well as government.  It is so good that people like her are willing and able to take jobs like that.  She also is going to try to come and speak at Nationwide (that is our annual Manager Leadership meeting, about 2600 DaVitans attend) next year – she attended one of our Nationwide’s before she entered the government, and loved what she saw of the Village you have build. Read more…

Yo DaVita, I am back!

I have good news and bad news (I am typing this on Monday afternoon, it will be a long one since I have not done an entry since Thursday night).

The good news is there are now over 1000 of us, digitally joining hands to improve our health!  The Village Lives, when individuals decide to make it so … and you have.

The bad news is that I gained weight last week, and did not get great exercise the last few days.  Here are the ugly facts.

Friday morning started with a light workout.  24 solid intensity minutes on the lifecycle, only 3 minutes of stretching, for a total of 27.  This was not enough given I had ordered a midnight cheeseburger the night before.  The rest of the day was work, followed by a huge dinner.

On Saturday morning we headed to the airport to fly back to the States.  It was a high performance day from a work perspective – On the flight to New Jersey I did a couple hours on DaVita RX with Josh Golomb sitting next to me, then I cleared 650 emails and sent 172.  On the flight to Denver I did a couple hours with Tom Usilton sitting next to me, and cleared another 600 emails and sent another 160.  All in all I worked 14 hours in a row, and was the only one of our group of 4 that did not sleep at all, that will show those young whippersnappers.  I also ate a lot more than I should have.

But therefore by the time I got home at 7:30 pm on Saturday night, it was about 2:30 am for my body and I was pretty burnt out.   I met with my assistant for an hour to go over the schedule for the coming 2 weeks, then headed down to the basement and did weak 22 minutes on the lifecycle and 2 minutes of stretching.  Total=24.  Better than nothing, but not good enough. Read more…

Good Evening DaVita Teammates,

I cannot comment on any entries from any of you, because I just got back to the hotel and I am dead tired.  I will do some pure business emails for another 30 minutes or so, so I can get to bed by a bit after midnight.  Today started at 8:00 am, which does not sound early but when you take into account that I had been up 33 out of the previous 36 hours it is not too shabby for an old man.

At 8 am I had to drag myself out of bed and into the gym, where I did a surprisingly robust 23 minutes on the lifecycle, followed by 2 sets of curls and push-ups (30 and 24) and 2 sets of stretching.  Total minutes = 33.  Not bad given the circumstances, but not impressive either.

Many good meetings all day, followed by a productive dinner and a couple phone calls back to the states.

I am eager to catch up with how the 800 of you are doing!  I wish you well in our shared adventure.

KT

(It is easy to be mindful.  It is hard to remember to be mindful)

Yo DaVita !!

Things have been a tad hectic.  I got a short workout on Tuesday am, only 27 minutes on the bike and 3 min of stretching.  Total = 30.  I had to run to the airport to start my journey.

On the San Francisco to Denver leg I worked with Josh Golomb on DaVita RX.  Then he got off in Denver, and Laura Mildenberger got on so we could work on People Services all the way to Washington DC.  Then I did a few hundred emails and some other tasks on the DC to Europe leg, leaving the last 3 hours for some sleep.

The first day in Europe is tough, because the local clock says 2 pm while your body is saying it is 5 am and you have only had 3 hours of sleep.  But if you go to bed you will never get to sleep that night, so I headed to the gym for a workout (27 minutes of biking, 3 minutes of stretching, total of 30 again).  Then I took a quick tour of the city, then did some work at the desk in my hotel room, up until it was time for my business dinner. Read more…

To: Kimberly Jantz, Tacoma, WA

Yo Kimberly!  You are on.

KT

_______________________________________

To: Pamela Brule- Minneapolis, MN

Dear Pamela,

I bow down before your accomplishments!  And congrats on 25 years!!!

KT

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To: Roxanne Hoffine, Tacoma, WA

Dear Roxanne,

WOW!!  You are right, together we can do things most of us cannot do alone.  Darn straight.

Read more…

Dear DaVitaLand,

It is Monday night as I type this, I will be getting up at 5 am to head down to the San Francisco area to grab my suitcase, grab a quick workout, and catch a plane to Denver/Washington DC/Europe.  On each plane and in each city I will have a different meeting, so don’t worry I will be working.  In fact, plane trips are some of my most productive times, especially when I am alone and can just do email and/or think.  Which are pretty much the only two things I do on planes, with rare exceptions.  Tomorrow is different, I will have someone sitting next to me on each flight to do work that best not be postponed.

Speaking of productivity, this was a productive MM III weekend.  Today I did a 37 minute run, in the hills.  One set of curls, one set of push-ups (30), and a couple sets of stretching.  I did a one hour hike with my sister, mostly off trail and thru the woods, and a 75 minute hike with my wife, on the trails.  I will count that 135 minutes as only 40, because it was not intense.  But darn healthy, physically and otherwise!

So today’s minutes total = 85.  So far I have eaten reasonably, but it is before dinner.

I hope you all have a great week coming up – I will do my best on MM blogs from Europe, but my body has a terrible time with jet lag and I have meetings scheduled all day and night.  No tougher than what most of you do I am sure.

One for All

KT

(Judge not those who try and fail.  Only those who fail to try)

Yo DaVitans !

I hope you all had a glorious Labor Day Weekend.  I hope that those who worked on Saturday and/or will work today nonetheless had a glorious 2 days off, or at least one.

My weekend was wonderfully healthy, in many respects, with one glaring exception.

On the exercise front, Saturday was a 32 minute intense run in the hills, with a solid time compared to the 15 years of history I have with that run (and allowing for my physical deterioration).  The run was followed by a good regimen of 3 sets of curls (20×15, 10, 9) and push-ups (34, 20, 24), and 100 crunches.  I also did 4 sets of stretches and swam 60 laps (counting there and back as two laps, and a 50 foot pool).  So it was an old man’s triathalon, sort of, with the little regimen substituting for the bike.  Total minutes = 85. Read more…

Dear Match the Mayor Team,

Good morning!  Saturday morning, that is.  I will be brief, since it is Labor Day weekend.

My first call yesterday was not until 7:45, and I worked until about noon.  Then my wife and I hopped in the car to head up to our cabin in the mountains.  I was able to do work for the first 2 hours of the 3 hour drive, on my cell phone.  I had promised we would get out of the city area before the horrendous traffic, because we know I will be traveling 5 nights next week, then be home for 24 hours, then travel 5 nights again.   That is not good, so I committed to delivering a quality Friday night to start the Labor Day weekend.

Once we got to the cabin, I headed out for a beautiful 45 minute mountain bike ride in the forests and hills.  I set a medium pace, and ended up about 2 minutes off my normal time, and 4 minutes off my personal best.  Then I did one set of curls and some stretches, ending up with a total of 54 minutes of solid exercise.

On the eating front, the fact that I am on a team (that now numbers over 700!) is already starting to infiltrate my consciousness a little bit and help me “just say no.”  It would be very good for me to drop a few pounds before the Tour DaVita, 250 miles is a lot of pedaling for this Midwestern boy.

I hope you all have a glorious weekend.  I will track my stuff, but will probably not send the next missive until Monday.  Take care!

Dear DaVitans,

Yo!  699 sign-ups on Day One, a new record!!

So as you do today whatever you set out to do as a part of your MM III Goal, please picture yourself being a part of a team that is 699 strong.  I personally will find it much harder to sneak a cookie if I picture 699 people staring at me yelling “KT don’t do it!”.

My plane landed on time yesterday, and I got home about 9:30 pm.  It would have been 30 minutes earlier but I stopped for a glorious double cheeseburger at my favorite burger place that I had not visited for months.

My day started with a 6:30 phone call with Ben Lipps, the CEO of Fresenius.  We collaborate on public policy issues.

After the call I did my workout.  45 minutes total.  22 minutes on the bike, 3 sets each of push-ups (34, 24, 26) and curls (20×16, 20×11, 20×9).  Also crunches and a few stretches.  I did my last stretches outside, always feels so energizing to enjoy the fresh air for a few minutes.

I have decided to increase my goals to 35 minutes per weekday, and 75 per weekend day.  Although what really matters is the weekly total, and the grand total, not the daily amount.  That is the key number in the end, the grand total after the whole campaign.

I spent the day at the Casa Norte in San Francisco, lots of meetings on bundling, home hemo, some lawsuits, the CMS proposal on quality withholds, etc.  Good day.  So far I have eaten quite responsibly, and tonight will be healthy to offset last night’s decadence.

Carpe Diem!

KT

(remember, spiritual practice is what you are doing right now!)