A Culture Playbook

On incentives and creating glory:

“In an environment where you have people who are motivated by more than just money,
look for ways to celebrate people who do good things, and hold them up as examples. People want the approval
of their peers and fellows. I think people underestimate what people will do for glory.
Create glory; if you create it, people will reach for it.”

On taking noble risks:

“Try to create an environment that's not punitive, where failure is not punished in draconian ways.
Silicon Valley does this very well because you can fail over, and over, and over. As long as you're not a fraud, you get to try again.
And it's regarded as noble, in and of itself. You've tried and failed to do something.
Don’t demonize failure, but see it as something else, rather than just failure.”

On sharing your expertise:

“Don't be so shy. There is this kind of rule in the world, that the more eager someone is to be on TV,
the less educational it is for everybody else to watch them on TV. The real experts don't reveal themselves because
they find it kind of shameful to put themselves forward. Because, like experts everywhere, they're hedging; they're uncertain;
they realize how complicated it is. And so, what happens is there is this vacuum into which rush a zillion phonies, frauds
and people who have no idea what they're talking about. So, fight that tendency to be modest, to not put yourself forward;
I think this would be very useful for our society.”

On establishing a culture of problem solving:

“It isn’t so much about instilling the drive to want to solve problems as it is just bringing it out or activating it.
One of the great things about working at a place like UCSF is that there are a lot of people here with the drive to solve problems.
When we had to quickly get testing going in our little clear hub across the street, we had to activate the system. We had a huge amount
of help, not only from Sam, but his entire team and others. When we said we wanted to do this and do it really fast, many people came out of
the woodwork from every level of leadership, administration, and science, throughout the university to step up and help.
We just put it out there that we were going to do it and make it happen as fast as possible. And once that switch was thrown, it was amazing."

“It's about activating and throwing that switch; and then just seeing who comes forward and who has those innate problem-solving skills.
A huge fraction of our population has it. But the switch has to be thrown, and they have to have the license to do it.”

[Video]

Definition of Racism:

"Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call “race”),
that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and
saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources."

On a Culture of Valuing:

“When you value everybody equally, you provide each one with what they need -- each community, each person, each population.
When you value your children equally, you don't give them all the same thing. You give them what they need.”

Racism exists: Listen to Dr. Jones’s allegory: Dual reality, a Restaurant Saga

“Racism structures 'open' and 'closed' signs in our society. Racism structures a dual reality.
For those who are sitting inside the restaurant, at the table of opportunity, eating, and they look up and they see a sign that says 'open',
they don't even recognize that there's a two-sided sign going on.
Because it is difficult for any of us to recognize a system of inequity that privileges us.”

Racism is a system: Listen to Dr. Jones’s allegory: Cement Dust in Our Lungs

“If we're really going to intervene, we must intervene at the systems level to have the fullest impact.
I lift up this question: how is racism operating here? Racism is a system with identifiable and addressable mechanisms which are in our
structures, policies, practices, norms and values. These all are actually the elements of decision making. Structures are the who, what, when, and where
of decision making, especially who's at the table and who's not, what's on the agenda and what's not. Any time you find yourself at a decision-making table
or set one, I encourage you henceforth to look around first thing and ask, who is not here who has an interest in this proceeding?”

Racism denial is operating in our society: Listen to Dr. Jones describe the Four Roots of Racism Denial [Stephanie needs to get link]

“Racism denial is a huge black hole in our national landscape, much like the black holes in the universe.
Massive, powerful, invisible, and sucking everything into them.
The reason you can't see black holes in the universe is that even when light comes near, it gets sucked in.
And that is how racism, denial is operating in our society.”

Polar tension between valuing comfort or valuing social justice: Listen to Dr. Jones’ allegory: Comfort or Social Justice

“How do we shift more people in this institution from valuing comfort to valuing social justice,
recognizing that in the current status quo, valuing social justice will not be comfortable?”

UCSF’s work in DEIA:

“UCSF is really good on naming racism and has done a little bit on the asking how is racism operating here
and organizing to strategize to act. These things are sequential, but they are also iterative. When you finish, when you have one success,
then you need to wash, rinse, and repeat. You need to go back and name racism again. You have to ask, 'How is racism operating here?' again.
Not just to see the other things that you might have missed the first time, but also people might have put in some new stuff because
racism is also always reconfiguring itself. And then organize and strategize to act. And again, and again, and again.
This is a looping process, which takes us to the point that it is intergenerational, that the anti-racism initiative at UCSF should not be
a five-year, ten-year, 15-year effort. This at least a 25-year effort.”

[Watch Dr. McElhaney's presentation]

On leadership today:

“What needs to change about leadership in today’s world?
Braver leaders, more courageous cultures, more admission of mistakes, deeper empathy and more inclusion.”

“Equity Fluent Leaders understand the value of different lived experiences and intentionally use their power
to drive positive change and build an inclusive and equitable world.”

People leave people, not organizations:

“People leave people, not organizations. So, people leave me and you, not the organization. Not UCSF. And that's a really heavy message.”

“Drivers of job satisfaction are not only relationships with management, but relationships with colleagues.
If you are not a top leader yet, don't take yourself off the hook. We have many opportunities to be an inclusive colleague every day.”

“Power poisoning: the higher up in an organization you get, the more oblivious you become about other people's needs.
I don't think it's rising up that makes you a worse person. It just puts more pressure on you to do tasks and focus on
processes and finances than you have time to focus on your people.”

Who is not thriving?

“People surviving least well right now are women with children at home.
And with the overlay of what's been happening with racial reckoning, it is really women of color who have children, particularly K-12 at home.
If you want to show the most vulnerability, the most empathy, spend the most time asking them about their lived experience.”

[Watch President Drake in Conversation with Dean King]

On UCSF as a Leader:

““It’s been interesting to watch the campus move from what was a great regional medical school,
to a really important national medical school and academic health center, to a world leading academic health center.
I think that the balance now, once one becomes a leader, is that you're not chasing someone, narrowing the gap,
following what someone else did and trying to do it better. You're trying to create your own pathway. And then you realize that as a leader,
people are following you. And it's ever more critical that you're doing the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”

On Leading Culture:

““The challenge of culture really is to get people organized and aligned in a similar mission and
moving forward in the same direction, trying to do the same things for the same reasons.”

“When we look at culture more broadly, a lot of it is looking at where people's hearts and minds are and how to move that forward.
It's very important for us to all have values that we focus on, the values that guide us and particularly when you're a leader.
You're not following a cookbook or a recipe, an app or a map. You're out there by yourself, and you're driving on a foggy road at night with no lines.
It's your values that you have to use to help guide you in in the way that you're moving forward. Being really centered in values is important.”

“In Ohio we had a chance to meet John Glenn and his wife, Annie, who were really great, wonderful people. And he had a line that he said:
that the happiest and most fulfilled people he knew were those who were devoted to something greater than their own self-interest.
And I think that is a good message. Doing a great job, realizing it's not about you, and continuing to push forward on that.”