The New Work transcript: Building a culture of care, with Cleveland Clinic’s Mike Kessel

The New Work: An HRPA Podcast features visionary leaders, CEOs, and innovators who are transforming culture, showcasing resilient leadership and shaping the human experience at work and beyond. From AI and equity to culture and leadership, the podcast explores how to unlock the full potential of our world’s most powerful resource: people.

Jodi: Welcome to The New Work. I’m Jodi Kovitz.

Mike: I would say 100% of my time is building the culture because at the end of the day, it’s not the fancy buildings, it’s not the fancy medical equipment, it’s not the fancy testing, it’s the people.

Jodi: Today, let’s learn how to care for our coworkers from someone who provides care for a living. For healthcare workers, the office environment is particularly challenging. Not only do they have the typical dynamics of any kind of workplace, but also the stakes are higher because healthcare workers have to take care of all of us. So today, we’re talking to someone who knows how to run a global nonprofit academic medical center because I think we can all learn from the practicality, resilience, and empathy that define the world of care. He also happens to be an award-winning CEO.

Mike: My name’s Mike Kessel. I’m the CEO of Cleveland Clinic Canada.

Jodi Mike took on the role of CEO in 2009 and relocated his family from Chicago to Toronto. The Cleveland Clinic was founded over a century ago by four doctors. They survived the First World War, and when they got home to Cleveland, they started this medical nonprofit.

Mike: And those four doctors, a hundred plus years later, turned into six thousand physicians.

Jodi: The Cleveland Clinic is now responsible for the care of millions of patients worldwide and a mountain of important academic research.

Mike: It’s got a very altruistic bone, which includes a medical school which is free.

Jodi: Mike leads from his heart, so we wanted to start by asking him what he values most when it comes to running Cleveland Clinic Canada.

Mike: I would probably say empathy. A little bit of what you see is what you get. Like, I really care about each person. And so we all, at times, are dealing with large numbers or large groups of people. But I do believe that it’s an N of one. Each person is an N of one. It’s not a hundred or two hundred or five hundred or eighty-three thousand people in Cleveland Clinic, which is global. They’re literally every person is so unique. And I think for me, I’ve always kind of held a personal mantra of hard on the issue, but soft on the people. So that’s something that I hold near and dear. And I want to get to know everyone. And I think in order to do that, in order to listen to stories, I think you have to be empathetic and really care about people. So when people call us up, and they’re looking for care, oftentimes they’re at the most vulnerable point in their life. So I want our team, it could be our front desk, it could be our cleaning crew, it could be a physician, it could be a technician. I want them talking to the patient like it’s their family, like it’s their brother, their sister, their mom, their loved one. And I think that is empathy. And you really, really, really care. And I’d say lastly, the clinic itself created a number of years ago an empathy video.

Jodi: Wow.

Mike: And we literally use it to onboard people. And there’s over eight million views now. Other hospitals, I want to say, four to five thousand hospitals have used it as a training tool around empathetic behaviour. And they’re real caregivers and providers from Cleveland Clinic. They’re in the video. And you’re actually looking at the world through the patient’s eyes.

Jodi: You know, it really makes me think we’ve just been on this major transformation journey. And I saw you like quite a lot earlier in our journey. And when I think about the power of empathy and how if you connect soul to soul actually with your employees, one human at a time, and they feel seen, heard, valued, that drives a level of engagement, that drives a level of performance and impact, and understanding, like, for us in the shoes of members, for you in the shoes of patients, that there is no other tool can replicate the impact.

Mike: Yeah, look, I agree. And I think your first guest, KeyAnna, she highlighted, which I loved, just that the boundaries of personal work and family, they’re gone. People are bringing things to work that you really have to really embrace and realize that we’re not robots, right? I mean, sure, we’re working, but the reality is you have to care about everyone because they’re bringing things outside the traditional workplace into the traditional work environment.

Jodi: How would you nudge or teach people to do that at scale? So the empathy that you teach people to show in their patient care, and certainly in terms of how you express that with your team, you know, you’re a busy guy and talking about like boundaries and personal energy management, actually. But how do you live and operate with empathy, but also enable that to scale on your team?

Mike: Yeah, look, I do think this is one of those things the leader has to lead by example, because number one, people are really smart. People are really sophisticated. So they can see it. They can see if you’re real or if you’re not real. And it gets around the community really quickly that this is a real serving leader or this is not. So I do, I mean, I try to just be myself. And I’d say the second big thing is with hiring, as you know, HRPA is famous for this, is providing tools and analytics around who the right person to add to your culture is, right? So we also spend a lot of time finding the right talent, but also empowering everybody. And this is literally skill-building and making sure that everyone knows that you have to treat everyone with respect, with empathy, and you’re empowered to do your job. And this is a very humbling and prestigious role that you’re coming into with an organization. And we want you to treat it that way. And so I think that it’s constant and it’s in every single setting.

Jodi: And what an interesting moment in time. So you’ve been with Cleveland Clinic in this role for 17 years. We now have the humans coming and we have all of the agents that undoubtedly are entering your workforce like they are mine. And, I’m really curious to hear a bit about your perspective on what we’ll get to AI in a minute, but what has changed in terms of the way the world now is and some of the difficulties, challenges, and opportunities. I’m an optimist, now versus when you started? Have you seen any cultural tide shifts or any really important different strategies that you’ve had to use to deal with the current state of the world?

Mike: Yeah, I mean, look, as you know, there have been a number of unique times over the last number of years, especially during COVID, right? So I would say during that period of time, I think we all learned a lot in that people can work remotely. People can communicate remotely, people can use technology tools, people can be on site, people can be off site. So there’s flexibility there. And different segments are producing differently. And certain types of personality types, certain types of people function in a very high-performance way remotely.

Jodi: Yes, I agree.

Mike: Some people do not. So I think during this specific time around COVID, for me, I think it taught me you don’t have to treat everyone the same. And that fits perfectly into my beliefs, as I mentioned earlier, each person is individual. And there are individuals collectively in these very segments that thrive in a kind of hybrid environment. And I think that’s really important to know, especially in my sector, because as you know, healthcare is a very cerebral sport. It’s a team-based sport, and patients really want what’s in trusted providers’ heads. So you need a team of people that basically are trusted advisors to advise you on your basically healthcare information. And if that team is on-site or if it’s off-site, they want that information from our heads and want it to be trusted and evidence-infused. And I think that’s a big thing that we’re driving towards. But the next thing I’ll share is we’re tripling down on humans this year in 2026. I do believe humans are still going to be a very important part of the healthcare process. Because, as you know, as we know, when we go to see a practitioner, there’s something about the history and physical. There’s something about looking the provider in the eye. There’s something about, I want to know that I’m okay. Or what can I do to avoid something?

Jodi: So, talk to me a little bit about, I really appreciate you sharing the sentiment around being very equity focused in how you engage different humans, and your sort of policy around each individual human or different roles might require different things. Right now, all the buzz is the return to office. If you can’t see me, I have my fingers up in quotations, because I believe it’s not really like a return. We are in a new world of work. And some environments may require, depending on where they’re at in their life cycle, et cetera, more in-person collaboration. I do deeply believe in in-person collaboration. And we also work and live in a completely different way than we did before 2020. So how do you sort of model that value of flexibility, perhaps accommodation, capital A, equity, but also the reality that probably many of your clients are back to work?

Mike: It is the right question. And as I mentioned, we have 83,000 people globally, which is amazing, built up over a hundred years. Here in Canada, we have about 500 people. So we’re 19 years old in Canada, about 500 caregivers. Everyone is a caregiver, about 80 physicians on the team. And I’ll tell you, I’ll give you an example. We have a team of close to 40 nurse practitioners that are living in all 10 provinces and three territories. And they’re at home. And they’re at home providing information virtually to patients. And they have to be in these various territories or provinces for licensure reasons. Right. They need to be there delivering the recommendations and the medical consultations.

Jodi: But they can triage from home, they can provide advice from home.

Mike: Right, they could do it all. We also have clinicians, physicians, technicians, et cetera, that are on-site attached to real estate.

Jodi: Yes.

Mike: And people are coming to see these clinicians on-site. We also have support services, marketing communications, finance, human resources. And honestly, we do try to match it up. And we say, maybe you come in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, right? And you kind of all very cohesively work together. And maybe another group comes in on Tuesday and Thursday. And that’s okay. So I think there’s been, our human resources team has done a fabulous job. I want to say, matching up the function. Like, what are they actually doing, right? With the culture to make sure like innovation continues to flourish and that the various demographics in the workplace continue to flourish. I think they’ve done a very, very good job there. And I have to tell you, it’s the evidence. You say, well, it’s the data to prove that. When I came here in 2009, our turnover was not, and remember, we had just started up, we were three years in existence, was probably north of 50%, which is crazy. Now it’s literally five or six percent. And so to me, when people choose to stay with you for a long period of time, I think that’s the evidence of a strong culture. And it feels good too, to be honest. It feels really good that you have a group of people that believe in helping patients first.

Jodi: That’s beautiful. And I think, you know, one of the reasons I wanted to have you here to chat today is the importance of the CEO owning culture, investing in culture, building culture, I think, is, you know, for me, can’t be underscored. So how much would you say of your energy, time, resource do you spend continuing to foster such a strong culture?

Mike: Yeah, I know you may laugh when you is it. I mean, I’d say a hundred percent. No, I really believe it’s how I show up every minute of every day. And you don’t know what’s going on in another person’s life. And you shouldn’t assume or presume. I think it’s the actions that I do and I make, which are authentic and sincere to be around, to be open for questions, to help people out, to ask them about their day, to roam around the halls, to reach out to people, say, hey, I don’t want anything. I’m just I just want to see how you’re doing, right? Picking up the phone, text messaging someone. Hey, I just thought you did a great job at that menopause exhibition. You did great, right? So I would say a hundred percent of my time is building the culture because at the end of the day, it’s not the fancy buildings, it’s not the fancy medical equipment, it’s not the fancy testing, it’s the people.

Jodi: That is music to my ears, but it’s exactly why I wanted to highlight your leadership. I mean, I am joyfully surprised to hear you answer that question. But it’s like the smallest actions that someone with the privilege and honour of your role, and certainly my role, to take a minute to recognize someone to care about what is going on with them, is what really can enable that connectivity to the mission and the purpose, right? Of what you’re trying to achieve. So that made me think of another very important topic, and I know something close to your heart around wellness in the workplace and our obligations. You know, in 2025, what we were talking about earlier around what Kiana was sharing, how we show up as our whole selves, which also shifts the expectations, right, of our employees to like, what are you doing for me? How are you taking care of me? I expect that of you. It’s like part of our contract now. You have told me a little bit about some really exciting work you’re doing, which I believe is materially contributing to Canada’s prosperity at the highest order around wellness and sort of being the chief medical officer for our large corporations and for our small, but very important to Canada corporations. Tell us about your program, how you work with big companies, how you work with small companies.

Mike: Yeah, thanks, Jody. I mean, because this is something I’m really proud of for Canadian caregivers. And it’s been really meaningful, I would say. In 2015, we noticed a gap in the market. And it’s something we call the corporate clinical gap. And you could appreciate this as a people leader is, you know, at the leadership table, there’s a CHRO, there’s a CEO, there’s a CFO, there’s a COO, and they’re all dealing with their most important asset. Humans. Yes. People. Yes. Right. Yet no one at that leadership table understands the anatomy of a human body. And they’re making decisions about EAP programs. They’re making decisions and policy decisions around perimenopause, menopause, mental health, fertility. These are really big decisions that are affecting people’s lives. So one of the things that we did and innovated here in Canada, we’re literally at the leadership table putting a fractional physician that also worked in the management consulting space. So you can name any of these firms, like the McKinsey, the Baines, the BCGs, has experienced that, but is also a practicing physician. And that person would spend time working with global CHROs, working with enterprise risk, working with the C-suite, and everyone that comes in contact with the decision about a human.

Jodi: So brilliant. Honestly, strategically, it’s so brilliant if you think about humans being our most important resources. That’s right.

Mike: And it’s about the populations of people. People have individual doctors. Individual care relationships. We’re not going to disrupt that. And as you know, the talented CHROs have put together awesome benefit plans, right? To support people. It could be in any type of discipline, right? Physical health, mental health, et cetera. So our job is to work with what they have and to make it better with them and to put the human in the process, if you will, and have someone in an organization that’s knowledgeable about what happens if you make some of these policy changes. Quite frankly, I do believe that all organizations should have a chief medical officer working on strategy alongside the team.

Jodi: It’s such an important point, especially as we think about mental wellness and overall human wellness as not just a must-have for compliance reasons, but really as an opportunity to strategically differentiate. So your company’s wellness strategy today and investment in your humans is actually what can fuel performance and over the long term really enable prosperity for the company, the country, and beyond. So it really is an issue for the C suite and boardroom. I could go on about this topic indefinitely because I’m very passionate about it. But I’ll take you into another one. If you have the vantage point, many of our listeners will be people leaders and seasoned HR professionals. You wear the CEO hat, you’re on boards. How can our HR leaders best support human-centred leaders like you in this moment, where technology is rapidly advancing, where we have five generations in the workforce, where our country is facing, you know, a real need to be much more productive? Like if you were to tell our seasoned people leaders who are listening and the ones up and coming, who are trying to develop the best, strongest strategic muscle to partner effectively with their CEOs, what are some thoughts or tips that you’ve seen on your team that have been really helpful to you?

Mike: Yeah, I mean, the first thing I’ll say is I actually do think we are at another inflection point as a country, as kind of a corporate Canada, if you will, where nothing is more important than the human resource function strategically and the next five years, honestly, it will be, I’ll tell you for us, I think it’ll be the most important function, future facing right now, literally in the next five years, because of everything that you mentioned. I’d say as my local human resource leader, Amber’s outstanding, and I would say the things that she has done to support me, it’s been trusted information that’s backed up with some evidence, right? Which is obviously very important. The timeliness of the information, being available to talk through situations that we all know, we deal with stuff. Some of them are great. Some are not so great. And it’s just the reality of life. So having someone there with me that I’m able to bounce things off, and they’re bouncing off me, is incredibly important. And I would say the last thing is confidence. Like you need people by your side working with you that are confident in everything that they’re doing. And that means being well read, being well thought out, understanding external market forces, understanding internally what’s going on, but being confident to present a view.

Jodi: Really important tips. And recently, actually, we’ve been really trying to develop programs to enable our folks to get more strategic. Many folks who are members of the HRPA possess all of those attributes and skills and helping enable and fuel them to show up with that kind of evidence, business case. We just released a skill-up course on the CFO mindset. So your HR leader can actually present, I want to invest in this benefits program, make this change because, and here is the ROI for the business. Like you, I think that HR leaders are gonna have to retool the entire workforce in partnership with their leadership teams. We’re also seeing some companies who are making their people leader their tech leader, like Moderna recently did it, which is so fascinating. Yes, and so I deeply believe that we have to have our CHRO at our design table for our full technology strategy, because of course, it’s all humans that have to execute and implement the strategy. So we’re thinking about the next generation of leaders. You clearly are someone who believes deeply in the power of human connection and building empathy. When you’re thinking about the next gen, you have your new caregivers joining Cleveland Clinic Canada. What are some leadership tips you’d like to pass on for the next generation?

Mike: You know, my mom taught me at a very young age to always be out there building relationships, right, which people would call networking now. And I think I may have been the first, one of the first LinkedIn subscribers, like 30 years ago or something. Like, oh my god, what a great concept, like I can meet someone like this. Click. And so every year, I would set a goal to increase my network by five percent. And it would be an Outlook, my contacts there, and it’d be a LinkedIn for many, many years. And that was my target and my goal. And oftentimes, you don’t know when you need the relationship or you need the network. So I would say to young folks, that power of connectivity isn’t one plus one equals two. As we all know, those nodes connect very quickly. And especially in the world of human resources and human capital and human experience, they connect way faster. So I would say build those relationships at a very, very young age. You’re gonna need them in a very positive way. And the last thing, I think the biggest thing, it probably isn’t that. Honestly, I think the biggest thing is your personal brand. And so you better be self-aware of what peers think of you, what the external world thinks of you, because that, I think, is a major asset on your balance sheet.

Jodi: Know what I always say to folks I mentor? Show up as who you are and act in business with your values how you would in your life. And certainly, I see it every day with my amazing team. And when you’re a great leader like you are, Mike, you attract those kinds of people. So let’s finish with this question. It’s a big question, but because you’ve moved to Canada and you’ve stayed here and we’re so happy about it and you care so deeply, and I know you’re right in the fabric of leaders in corporate Canada that care deeply about our country. What is a call to action for all of us that care about the future of this beautiful country, and what we as leaders can do to contribute towards driving our economic prosperity and success?

Mike: Yeah. Oh, that’s a big question. I moved from Chicago in 2009 with my family. I’ll tell you, when I came here, all my friends from Chicago would say, what’s it like working in Canada? I said, Well, I’ll tell you, I actually think there’s a great work-life balance here. But for our economy here, it goes back to when you’re working, you work and you are present and you knowledge up and skill up, and you do the best that you could do for the country and you work your tail off and you work hard. So I think literally Canada continuing to kind of amplify the volume up on look, work is really important for our people, for our economy, and people are everything, right?

Jodi: Thank you so much, Mike, for coming today. I’ve had so much fun talking to you.

Mike: Yeah, Jodi, it’s really been a pleasure knowing you as a friend, but also seeing you in this leadership role and impacting humans in such a big way. I’m really happy to be here. So thank you.

Jodi: That was Mike Kessel, CEO of Cleveland Clinic Canada. The New Work is produced by the HRPA and the Globe Content Studio. The producers are Jay Cockburn and Kyle Fulton, with production support by Brian Wilson and Sammy Rosenzweig. The executive producer is Kiran Rana. Thanks for listening.

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