52 Weeks, 52 Words: Week 42 - Humility

I have made no secret of my love affair for The West Wing. I am crazy-go-nuts for the erudite scripts, superb acting, and the brilliant cinematography that encapsulates an optimism and idealism for what is possible. Fortunately, I have recently been sated by a special presentation on the new HBO Max streaming service where, for the first time in 14 years there is something new to consume – beyond re-watches (20+ per episode) or a new(ish) podcast series breaking down each past episode in meticulous nostalgic form – and something new to set my heart aflutter.

In collaboration with the non-profit When We All Vote, many of the cast and crew, along with creator Aaron Sorkin, revisited an episode from Season 3 of the show in 2003 called “Hartsfield’s Landing.” They were loath to call it a reunion because it is, in fact, a reprise of one of the great shows’ many episodes, with mainstays of the cast settling back into their characters, albeit a little grayer and with more mature faces and postures, to offer a staged performance as a play.

I wrote this article with my third re-watch of the special episode on in the background and, though my eyes were still a little dusty from a giddiness to the sublime, the tenets of humility in our little corner of the world rang in my head like the church bells from National Cathedral.

One thing that made this reunion a non-reunion was due to the fact that the actor who played White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry had died back in 2006. His role in this performance at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, was played by the incomparable Sterling K. Brown, of NBC’s hit drama, This is Us. Brown approached the role and his portrayal of the legendary character with both reverence and a measure of austereness. A gifted actor in his own right, Brown’s characterization was more of a table read without too many inflections adding his own unique perspective to the script and performance. Why, you might be asking? I believe it was based on his recognition of the iconic character built by the late John Spencer and wanting to pay homage to it by stripping down his own version (perhaps knowing that long-time "WingNuts" like myself were going to hear Spencer’s raspy baritone in our heads no matter what) but also out of a sense of humility.

A perpetual theme in The West Wing is about honor and duty (“they’re all about duty”) and that ideal pervades for us in medical communications agency’s as well. Humility is not about deference and suppressing of our gifts or talents; it is not about meekness or subjugation of our considerable knowledge and insights; and it is, most certainly, not about timidity or shrinking before power. No, not at all – none of that!

Humility’s source for us should come a transfer of focus and a re-calibration of priorities.

Thus, humility might best be described as clarity of vision about ourselves, our place in the world and about how we stand in relation to others. It is a clarity of vision that enables the ongoing cooperation without which good health care is seriously impaired.

Being authentically humble doesn’t mean that we are saying someone is better than we are or that something is beneath us; in full transparency, it means acknowledging the dignity of the other individuals and their station by joining our minds to theirs in recognition that we are all humans.

We can appreciate the special importance of humility if we reflect on what it is like to work with someone dominated by pride, the vice that most directly opposes humility. Pride keeps us from acknowledging who we really are: gifted but also limited, capable but also dependent. Pride destroys the thoughtfulness, kindness and graciousness of spirit that enable us to flourish and do good in our professions.

Their appraisal of themselves, as well as others, is distorted because they attribute gifts and qualities to themselves that they really don't have, while not recognizing or acknowledging gifts and qualities that others do have. Such a characteristic is guaranteed to sabotage the collegiality that is indispensable for excellence to which we strive.

As the theologian Daniel Schwartz observes, with pride, "I overstep what I am: I produce a public image of myself that does not fit reality."

But if I continually "overstep what I am," I cannot possibly work well with others, because I will be unwilling to acknowledge my dependence on them. And I particularly will be unable to admit that I might be wrong, that there are things I don't know and need to learn. Therefore, I must listen carefully to those who can teach me, whether they are other colleagues, the patients entrusted to my care or their families and friends. Pride, rather than elevating and protecting us, is ultimately self-defeating because it estranges us from the very persons whose expertise, counsel and support we need in order to do our jobs well.

How, then, does humility contribute to excellence in medical communications?

Humility makes for better agency partners in many ways, but three seem most important: First, without humility, will not be sufficiently attuned to what always must be our central focus and abiding concern: the patient. Humility helps everyone who attends to patients not as biological puzzles needing to be solved, but as unique persons in need of healing, care, understanding and compassion.

A second reason humility fosters excellence is that humility enables us to love well. It might seem strange to speak of love in the context of health care, because we ordinarily associate love with the more personal and private relationships of our lives. At the very least, to love means to recognize, respect and respond to our clients and HCPs as human beings – no matter how difficult or cantankerous they may be.

To love is to genuinely care for our work and to be committed to our charge. It comes down to being present, available and attentive to those people and medical education services who are entrusted to us, something that is not easily achieved when we are distracted, stressed or exhausted.

Humility fosters this love because it forms us into an organization who is able to live for something other than ourselves for the sake of another's good. In this respect, humility empowers a love that is altruistic and caring. It means we are not just creating a slide deck or a scientific platform. It elevates the importance of our work beyond just a MLR submission and pushes us to see the whole board.

A love informed by humility resists this depersonalization by reminding us that the relationship between us and either our clients or HCPs is human encounter in which a person in need comes for help. It may not always be seen that way but if our clients always knew what they wanted or could do it themselves then they wouldn’t need us. But they do…they come with a need and our service approach, when built out of love, confers a priority to our remit beyond the transactional.

Finally, humility contributes to excellence because it nurtures deep collegiality among all who are involved in our agency assignments, particularly our colleagues and partners. A humble person recognizes that none of us, no matter how highly educated, trained and skilled, either knows or can do everything. Because our knowledge and expertise are limited, we have to listen to and learn from others. We have to be open to their suggestions, willing to consult them, and ready to admit that their ideas may be better than our own.

Without humility, we can be overly confident in our abilities and in our assessment of particular cases, barging ahead without taking time to discern with others what needs to be done, or worse, arrogantly attempting to do it entirely ourselves. Humility reminds us that excellence requires an institutional culture of collegiality characterized by charity, mutual respect, communication and ongoing collaboration.

St. Thomas Aquinas (a clear source of inspiration for Aaron Sorkin with his fictitious president) said that humility "curbs pushiness." Aquinas recognized how easy it is for any of us to be pushy, especially when we think we, alone, know what needs to be done, that we are always right and that we can succeed in our professions all by ourselves. When this occurs, the collegiality necessary to achieve the fundamental goal of our medical communications begins to frazzle. I don’t have to belabor the point of how critical this is and how much it is something we each must revisit and reflect on ourselves from time to time and to tinker with for personal growth. 

Humility assuages pushiness because it teaches us how much we need others.

Too many times to count, I know I have gone into a client meeting or a pitch wanting to be heard and with my own agenda. Head down and head strong, I plowed through what I wanted to say and what I felt was needed to persuade the client to my rationale and solution rather than arriving with an open mind and a willingness to listen for their needs and intentions. With a service mindset I could apply my knowledge to their circumstances and arrive at a greater outcome because arrogance in planning shrouded the opportunity for something better and more precisely needed in that moment by that person.

That's the wisdom of humility, an unacclaimed and often neglected virtue, but one that needs to be honored, embraced and nurtured if all who are involved in this industry are to achieve excellence and flourish together.

These were all points that Sterling K. Brown divined as he humbly took on the role of Leo last week. He recognized what he was called to do for that night and amongst that ensemble cast of talented, Emmy-award winning actors. His role had purpose to which he contributed but he was just another cast member working alongside of the others in the cast to inform and entertain. A role we should each remember and recall when we are taking on the challenges of a new product launch, forming a client account team or building a campaign with a client.

Our network, Havas Health & You, has built our positioning around a core theme of human purpose. A touching idea and one integral to the weight of the ampersand and the necessity for humility.

Humility forces that conjoining of two human elements and puts us on guard to embrace one another – together – on a journey.

When done successfully, it’s outcomes can hardly be calculated and remind us why are do this work and what underscores our team and agency assignments. In the end, after all, they are all about duty!

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