Is it what one brings or how one fits in with others?

Is it what one brings or how one fits in with others? Or both, like each piece in a jigsaw puzzle?

Is it doing human brilliantly or is it doing brilliance humanly?

The keen eye for trouble? For what matters? The keen mind to curiously investigate what is the distress? Or the keen heart to tend? To see oneself in the person seeking care or to see that person as one’s kin?

To follow protocol to keep safety and quality and reliability? To break protocol and go out of one’s way for moments of deep human connection? Or like in that prayer, the wisdom to know which one to do here and now?

To act selflessly when needed even when running on empty? Or to care for oneself until one is well enough to show up to care?

To keep cool in the face of suffering or to lose one’s cool in the face of incompetence or of indifference to it?

To be nice and accepting or to be tough and exacting?

To be efficient, prompt and timely or to be unhurried and elegant? A reliable robot? A joyful dancer?

Do you see conversation and connection or do you see waste and idleness?

Is it resilience that matters or is it endurance? Is that of each one or an emerging feature of our togetherness?

Is it values? Or value?

Will the work of care push us apart, behind the algorithm, the electronic form, the opaque window, the holding music? If so, will it matter who we are? If caring is co-created with competence and compassion, will it matter who we are together?

Do we show up to play in a marching band or a jazz ensemble? Are we to reflect the organisation or shape it? A flower? A mycelium? An aspen pando? An eagle soaring majestically? A crow using a stick to pry open a window? A starling turning in murmuration?

Is it what one brings or how one fits in with others? I believe that it is both, like each piece in a jigsaw puzzle. The corner ones. That last one. Each one in between and the one we can’t find. But how can we tell? Is it the quality of our work or of our character? The dexterity of our hands or the openness of our arms? What brings us into care?

What unites us?

Is this one the missing one? Can we tell at first glance? Are there three questions to find out?

Victor Montori is professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in the US and co-founder of The Patient Revolution. He is also one of the judges for our ‘What Unites Us?’ prize.

Find out more and enter the ‘What Unites Us?’ competition – entries close on 31 October.