Bill Shannon
Chief Wisdom Officer and Senior Vice President, DaVita Inc.
The DaVita Way
It’s difficult to describe Bill Shannon without seeing the sparkle he still retains from his 17 years at The Walt Disney Company, where he did everything from putting people on and off the Matterhorn Bobsleds to writing training materials. Most notably though, he was part of the team that opened the Disney Institute, an internationally-renowned organization founded in 1996 to share best business practices with companies around the world.
Shannon’s specialty–and where he concentrates most of his efforts–is creating feel-good business atmospheres where things get done in a seemingly effortless fashion, simply because everybody is happy to do their part. In 2005, Shannon joined DaVita, Inc., the world’s largest kidney care business. As Chief Wisdom Officer, he focuses on ways to create positive experiences for more than 110,000 dialysis patients while simultaneously strengthening the company from within. For the fourth year in a row, FORTUNE magazine has listed DaVita as one of its Most Admired Companies. This year, the magazine ranked it #1 in innovation among medical facilities.
The entire DaVita setting is collegial; Shannon is the “Coach” and employees are “teammates.” The company has no central division but is divided into five regional groups that pick their own team names and design their own logos right down to the local level.
Like Disney and other strong cultures, DaVita has a series of traditions and languages all its own. Symbols include the musketeers and their slogan “One for All and All for One!”
“I always ask myself in meetings, What’s ‘DaVita’ about this?” Shannon says.
It’s a trick he learned at Disney. When something intriguing came up, he and his colleagues would ask themselves, ‘What’s Disney about this?’
To answer the ‘DaVita’ question, people need to fully understand the company itself. As the company revived itself from its unsuccessful predecessor, TRC, DaVita asked teammates to construct their own set of corporate principles. The teammates themselves chose the company’s Core Values, and even the name DaVita. It’s a “workplace democracy” where everyone thinks independently and is encouraged to have Fun – which is one of DaVita’s Core Values.
“It’s a part of our curriculum,” he explains - “a part of our dictionary or our nomenclature. We are a values-driven organization to a tremendous extent and our teammates are responsible for articulating those values.” They also share this team spirit with patients receiving kidney care from DaVita.
“At Disney, we learned to look at things through the lens of the guest,” Shannon says. “We tried to exceed expectations, meet needs plus wants - to surprise and delight at certain times. We would do a little bit extra to make experiences special and memorable.”
Imagine transferring some of that surprise and delight to a patient sitting in a dialysis chair for hours, simply watching life slip by. Shannon sees this as the perfect moment for DaVita teammates to affect someone’s life in a tremendous way. Since healthcare providers have a unique and intimate perspective on the lives of their patients, they have a rare opportunity to deliver the “little bit extra” that a patient will remember.
Shannon is effusively appreciative of DaVita teammates. “Everyone in health care is a very special person,” he says. “Unlike a hospital or other health care venues, our facilities get patients who come in the door full of toxins. They feel weak. They’re not chipper. Folks who provide health care to dialysis patients literally have those lives in their hands.”
That’s why the DaVita way begins with genuine, respectful concern for its own employees. The organization strives to nurture happy and motivated teammates with the willingness and understanding to offer compassionate care in the delicate environment of dialysis treatment.
“If we’re going to have serious regard for our responsibilities and our return to shareholders, we’ve got to have a strong social contract with our teammates,” says Shannon. “We’re formed like a community and we think like a community. We just happen to be in the kidney care business. The company is just the vehicle for achieving that community.”
Shannon strives to influence and lead DaVita teammates by the power of his own positive example. The DaVita way trickles down from the “Coach” and many outstanding DaVita leaders to the teammates to the dialysis patients, who, despite undergoing the most trying of circumstances of their lives, might just be able to feel a little sparkle of joy.
