A Cure for the Common Company

11Dinner Is Served

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP in Buffalo, my mom and dad would throw us into the back of our station wagon on Thanksgiving Day and magically eight hours later we'd show up at our grandparents' house in Brooklyn, ready to have a huge feast with our aunts, uncle, and cousins. Those holiday feasts hold great memories for me, and as an adult, they provide me a new appreciation for the work that unknowingly went into making those childhood memories come to fruition.

I didn't know what it meant to work all day, pack for four young kids, and then very early the next morning, drive eight hours across the New York State Thruway to arrive by lunch. As much or more work was going on at the receiving end: planning a menu for close to 20, creating the shopping list, looking for volunteers to do some of the food preparation, setting the table, and later keeping the glasses full and the food warm as the holiday unfolded.

Now that we have Thanksgiving at our home, I understand that the production starts weeks in advance and the recovery lingers long after the guests are gone. Nonetheless, I wouldn't trade it.

Building a well‐being culture on your team and in your organization is much like Thanksgiving dinner. It will take time to plan. It's necessary to get many “family” members to pitch in. A pie may fall on the floor (yes, this really happened one year)—mistakes happen. Most of the guests and your teammates will never know how much work it took for each dish to land on the table, ...