As I am writing this it is the night before Christmas – all work done and ready to celebrate with family and friends! We had planned to remind you of our upcoming Forum we are so excited about, but then – while wrapping the last presents – I thought: No. Not another reminder. You already know the facts. I would rather like to tell you the story and say thanks. You may delete this message now – I do the same with many “wishing-you-a-merry-Christmas” emails I receive (I personally am a big fan of New Year’s wishes because I never manage to write the cards before Christmas). But maybe you are curious what happened in 2014 and how we came up with some of the ideas we put into practice.
Today, I am writing to you from good old Germany after a wild and wonderful year of travels and plenty of to-dos accomplished for the Center for Healthcare Management and the people who work for and with us. There is no Thanksgiving Day in Germany – we do it “all at once” at Christmas (Eve): celebrating with a festive dinner and “saying thanks” to each other while we are trimming the tree with a smile in the face. You may say that our Christmas Eve is quite loaded and full of expectations. And not all expectations are met and not all wishes become true all the time. Well, it also depends on how we manage our expectations. But for us this year was like a typical (German) Christmas Eve where all comes together nicely and we are tankful beyond belief in every respect.
Beyond balance sheets and profoundly so it is about the little, but fundamental things that I would like to mention here:
- The gift of working with people in our projects and in the Care-Tank who are not only smart, but also kind and enjoyable human beings,
- The luxury to work on truly innovative content that really makes a difference,
- The happiness to see that a scientific idea works in practice and has an impact on people in different countries and cultures.
For us at the Center this has been a very exciting year because we finally sealed our affiliation with Columbia University in New York – a long-planned milestone we put all our efforts in. I do not wish to mention anyone particular here for her/his support – things always happen because many other things suddenly come together and everything falls into line. But on this Christmas Eve I am thankful for
- Everyone who believed in us, listened and responded to – sometimes – quite non-conventional scientific approaches,
- Those of you who pushed the forward button or picked up the phone,
- All of you who responded (fedex) overnight when it was urgent again,
- Some of you who reviewed (and rejected) crazy ideas before we went bare-naked on stage,
- Everyone who liked the spice of science we intended to reinstall, and last, but not least,
- All of you who said it’s great fun to work with us.
Thank you, danke, merci, grazie and happy holidays on this special Christmas Eve!
See you next year. Best wishes,
Prof. Dr. Katharina Janus
Director of the Center for Healthcare Management, Germany, and Columbia University, New York, USA