It’s Thursday evening, in the ward, with an almost euphoric air. The ward staff are all happy and the banter between them and the patients is funny and wholesome.

They are planning their staff party on Saturday night. It’s for the Clandon ward staff and the Maxillofacial, ear neck and throat medical team. It’s being held at the social club on the hospital campus to keep costs down. They are bringing their own food and there is much hope that the drinking will be plentiful. There are a few discussions on outfits to wear but the spirit is more about the collective spending time together, outside of the daily 12 hours shifts and pressure to keep patients alive and well.

This very same evening, less than 30 miles away, my Company is hosting its Christmas party for all the Headquarters staff. It’s a final farewell bash as we are in the process of being taken over by Shell. Throughout Thursday evening my phone stays busy receiving photos and commentary from friends and colleagues attending.

And it got me thinking about the choices we make when we decide what to do after leaving school.

I work for a successful oil and gas company. I get paid well for my services, as do all of my other colleagues. Even in $40 oil we are paid handsomely. Over the past three years we have done a lot of work in culture change, attempting to move away from a very strong patriarchal, entitlement culture towards a more performance management/merit based culture, rooted in some clear values. At the heart of what we strive to achieve is the notion of network and teamwork.

And yet in only 5 days on the ward, I have seen and been part of the creativity, respect, teamwork and culture of the Clandon ward and maxillofacial medical team. Here they have common goals and strong purpose. This team pull together because they are patient centric. Their purpose is to tend and heal and care. They have reviews every 12 hours (start/end of each shift) against that purpose and once a week the senior medical team get together to discuss all the patients in their care and how they support them in improving their health and well-being.

In corporate land, with the need to satisfy ever demanding shareholders, clarity of purpose – why the company exists and what it is there for, in my experience, barely rates on the minds and conversations of senior Executives. There are few internal performance reviews on how the company is performing against its overall long-term purpose. Yet much discussion on how to encourage employees to do more to deliver on short-term strategies and goals. And still we don’t connect the dots. For if employees understand and buy into the long-term purpose, they have more choice; on their contribution; on their commitment; on their belief in the company.

I chose the corporate world as a career as I genuinely believe that when you can connect purpose, passion and performance you can make a wide impact on society. I admire and respect those who choose their careers for more altruistic reasons.

So if, as a social experiment, we were to swap Christmas parties, that the staff from my company attended the hospital social club bash and vice versa, what would be the outcome? With more purpose and less money would the corporate workers find themselves more content and creative? Would they make their own fun? Would they mingle and network more? And what would a lavish Christmas party do for those who word hard on the Clandon ward? How much of this excess would they be comfortable with? How much fun would it be?

What do you think?