The more I listened at case conferences, the more I realised that we were dealing with nested systems of dysfunction beyond the identified (child) patient: there was also marital discord, familial conflict, inadequate schooling, community decay and - it goes without saying - acute financial need.

There’s no replacement for learning a system from the ground up.

There were plenty of standards in place, but no real systems to communicate them. Unsurprisingly, this led to a lot of inconsistency.

It’s a cliché that culture can’t be taught; it has to be caught. And what better way to appreciate the exquisite nature of Daniel’s food than to spend six months ferrying plates from the kitchen to the table? More important, while we were teaching people the technical points a little bit at a time, it would give them the opportunity to fully absorb the culture we were building, long before they became point person with a guest. And how we chose which people to invite onto the team became central to our success.

Still, a hundred and fifty people worked for us at EMP, and every one of them had to be aligned with the mission. We needed language. Language is how you give intention to your intuition and how you share your vision with others. Language is how you create a culture.