Somewhere around 2009, UHG embarked on what they called a “culture journey”. Its purpose was to combat the behaviors that eroded trust and tanked what should have been lucrative ventures. They sent several rounds of leaders through a 2 day “culture unfreezing session”, then a 1 day reinforcement session. I have to say, it changed my life. I saw my place in the world. I navigated relationships with my loved ones better, much less at work.
Yearly, we would have a “culture summit”, where folks would congregate from all the UHG hub sites, with the flagship site being in MN, of course.
There was a year where Steve Hemsley won a prize that was named after him, I believe. I will never forget that he said we don’t sell soda or tennis ba--s, we handle people’s lives, and we should comport ourselves accordingly. I was never so proud to be a part of this company when I heard that.
So I was an ambassador for those principles from which I had been unfrozen. I remembered that each value builds upon the next. Integrity, Compassion, Relationships, Innovation, Performance. If the end goal is performance, you can’t have that without mastering the previous 4. If you want innovation, you can’t have that without mastering the previous 3. And so on. Which means the most fundamental value is integrity.
Along my journey, I learned that integrity is the product of competence and authenticity.
And then I realized that you, UHG, have shown neither to your employees, providers or members.
Given that life is not a multiple choice test, when you fail the first step, well my dear, you just failed.
So my question to you, UHG, is what now? Now what.