I’ve been in San Diego for the past three days – mainly holiday but with two speaking engagements for the annual leadership get-together for Sharp HealthCare. Its one of my biggest ever gigs with over 700 people present for each of the days.

At lunch yesterday with some of the folks at Sharp, one of the ladies from the sound booth asked me to clarify something I’d said. I’d mentioned Ned Kelly and described him as an infamous bushranger (outlaw) who had become something of a folk hero. So, Jill described that the folks in the sound booth were sure I’d said ‘Ned Kelly is a famous bushwanker’ and she wanted to know if that’s what I’d meant to say. This caused a huge outburst of laughter from everyone in the room. I’m 100% sure I said ‘bushranger’ and explained that ‘bushwanker’ would be highly inappropriate.

Sharp HealthCare are one of the major health providers in San Diego with 15,000 staff. I was really impressed with them – storytelling is one of their five ‘foundations’ and much of the day was devoted to sharing both staff and patient stories. Their vision is to be ‘the best health care system in the universe’. If you look at this clip by Dan Heath you’ll understand why I like this vision so much.