PERSERVERANCE
Summit’s Cultural Excellence Program is the product of a deliberate process untaken to delineate, preserve and promulgate the critical elements of our success in the past and, as we believe, ensure our success in the future. These critical elements start with our Values. To regard them as critical, by nature, means it is impossible to say one value is more important than another. The synergistic effect of all six is what makes Summit special.
It’s interesting though to think about the contributions of each value and how they actually work together to make us special and, as I believe, rare. For example, Passion is the foundation of our existence as a company. It grounds us in why Summit was created and how important the work is that we do every day. Another value, Teamwork, is impossible without a shared purpose. Passion unites us with that shared purpose. Without Teamwork, we are a house divided, focused only on our own priorities and not the greater success of Summit. United in our focus, we need Honesty and Respect to govern how we operate, interact internally and externally and make decisions. These values keep us focused on doing the right thing for the right reason. And, while these values are admirable, they mean nothing if we don’t have competence. Doing the right thing wrongly helps no one. Insisting on competence drives our effectiveness. It safeguards our viability as a company and provides our patients with the best chance of achieving a rewarding life in sobriety.
In a perfect world, our values list could end there. Infused with Passion, Teamwork, Honesty, Respect and Competence we would conquer the world and cure addiction. Unfortunately, our world is not perfect. What we do is hard. At times, our goals seem impossible. Whether it is a patient we just can’t seem to engage in treatment; a position we can’t seem to fill with the right person; an insurance company that doesn’t want to pay us or an ATD rate increasing – challenges and struggles are at every turn.
So, while no value is more important than another, it is the ever presence of obstacles and challenges that leads me to confess that my favorite value is Perseverance. But what is perseverance? The best description is “continuing in a course of action without regard to discouragement, opposition or previous failure.” The boldness of perseverance as defined in this way is empowering. If you are committed on your course, in this case, to succeed in your role at Summit, your best recourse when confronted with adversity is to embrace a “failure is not an option” or “never, never give up” attitude.
Notice I said “your best recourse”. You can accept failure as an option and there are times when it is extremely tempting. In these times, I like to remind myself that “obstacles do not block the path, they are the path.” It’s related to another truism that “nothing worth doing is easy.” We set off on a course and, illogically, we are surprised that we encounter challenges, as if the nobility of our mission should keep us immune from such. It just doesn’t work that way. When we view obstacles as the path, we are more accepting of their existence and we are more inclined to see them not as roadblocks to our success, but as challenges to overcome. In the words of the American author, Orison Swett Marden, “most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.”
Summit’s growth and success are impressive, but from the outside looking in, it’s impossible to understand how tough it was to get where we are now – and it’s not like there is a scarcity of challenges today. In writing this, I reflected on a number of instances where I wasn’t sure if I could keep going and a few where, honestly, I wasn’t sure Summit could keep going. Perseverance is the value that allowed me to “boldly walk through” the obstacles and refuse to succumb to defeat. It gave me and those around me the power to hang on and push through. Never giving up was worth it then – and it is worth it now!
- Jeff Barnett, Chief Operating Officer