One of my favourite things about Canada is our cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. So many opportunities to have fun and celebrate various holidays and festivities.
Healthcare practices can have a lot of staff, patients and clients of different cultures and these are opportunities to show you care about them and celebrate with them.
Where to start
For starters, get rid of any “bah, humbug” thoughts you may be having and “it’s too much bother” or “we’re too busy to get involved” ideas. Rise above those and decide to get interested and have some fun!
Have an informal planning session with your staff and do a survey with them to find out what cultural celebrations they take part in and what they know of your patient’s or client’s as well. Get them sharing ideas of how you could do small or large scale celebrations. The more fun and joviality in an office, the more attractive it is to your public, by the way. Solemnity is very boring and off-putting to most people. Most of your staff also can get a little bored if every day is the same.
Make a calendar of events
The next step might be to make a calendar of events throughout the year and rough out what you might need to find out or know about the different occasions.
Obviously you might not be able to celebrate a lot of them, but pick some popular or important ones … maybe one every two months, for instance.
Events In-Charge
Perhaps one of your staff is particularly good at planning events and can get the ball rolling and get everyone else’s help on an “as needed” basis. It may involve decorating, or cooking treats, or having an all-out party.
Excitement is created
As an example, in my office we have 15 staff but there are 2 who are full of ideas and fun (yes, the younger ones) and they are coming up with non-stop ideas for the pre-Christmas holidays celebrations. The week before we close in December, we are having a potluck dinner at the office and then going to see a play that, believe it or not, everyone actually agreed on.
Then they’re going to make our annual “video Christmas card” to email to you. There’ll be the annual Christmas guessing game with a prize … last year the game was to guess how many cookies we made and decorated and put in a big box. I don’t know what they’ll come up with this year but there is a lot of whispered planning going on.
Of course, they want to do the Kris Kringle thing … we drew names and we have to buy a gift of about $25 for the person whose name you drew. Those will be opened on the last day before we close for the holidays.
Then … out of the blue, they decided we should have a “For No Reason Whatsoever” potluck lunch on Friday. I mean, they are really getting into this and having fun.
Have fun and get work done!
And guess what, they are still getting all their work done because they are excited and looking forward to each day, coming in early, working on their ideas on lunch hour, etc.
Put a little fun in your life and those around you! Or a LOT!
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