September 12, 2008

Yo DaVitans!

It is mid-day Friday now. Last night was my seventh in a row without a dessert. That is good for me.

I turned off the lights about 20 minutes after midnight last night, and got up at 6 a.m. to get a few emails done before heading to TMC (Team Music City, our big neighborhood in Nashville, with about 440 teammates onsite). I listened to voicemails on the speakerphone as I ate my two eggs and ham, with shredded wheat and a sliced banana. This was a heavy egg week, I rarely have them at home or when I am down at the Casa DaVita. I left the hotel at 7:15 a.m.

My body is unhappy because it did not get exercise yesterday and even more unhappy that I did not start today with it. That is one reason it was even more important for me to have fish and a small soup for dinner last night, otherwise I knew my body would be even more unhappy. I will get exercise tonight when I get home to San Francisco, before dinner.

I arrived at TMC at 7:15 a.m. It’s fun just to walk in TMC’s lobby. It has lively music playing (don’t worry, the music does not intrude into the workspaces). There are great DaVita pictures and colors and a warm friendly feeling.

First event was a filming of a video that is going to be available for centers and other neighborhoods to describe our Village Programs — meaning the DaVita Village Network, the Village Paradise Awards, the We Are Here Awards, the Bridges of Life Medical Missions, Shining Star Caregivers, etc. If you decide to get it, please flip me or Coach an email with any comments, so we can make the next version better.

The second event was a town hall meeting with the TMC team. I got to see them give out four awards and then I answered questions for awhile. I also told them how proud they should be that DaVita once again led the industry to victory with the recent Medicare legislation. I also had the pleasure of telling them that DaVita was the only public healthcare service company to be named to Modern Healthcare’s Best 100 Places to Work in healthcare ranking. Also, DaVita was recently named the 23rd most influential healthcare organization with respect to public policy. Good stuff, you all should be so proud of what other people think of what you have accomplished!

The third event was a DaVita Way of Managing (DWOM) town hall. DWOM is one of the most popular classes in DaVita University. After that town hall I had a private meeting with one exec, and then a phone call with a search firm that we are considering hiring to find another person for our Board of Directors. My lunch was healthy- namely salmon, broccoli, and wild rice, with a little bit of sauce so I would not gag on the dryness of it all. The flight home to California was productive as I attacked my 510 email backlog, a compensation/performance outline for an executive, and a negotiating strategy for a deal we are working on.

I will be getting on the scale first thing tomorrow morning — remember that is my weigh-in time, same scale, same time, same clothing … because my morning weights are far more stable than any other time of day. I hope I did better on the road this week than I did in the mountains last week.

One for All,

KT

(Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there)