Andrew Jahn
Episode 7

Narrator:

Welcome, friends, to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Welcome to another episode of The Story & Experience Podcast. And for all of you who are brand-new to this experience, I just want to explain how it actually works. We have a guest that I'm going to introduce in a second and ask their name. But before I do that, I'll explain to you that we have a hundred questions. These questions get progressively more complex as time goes on, and question 100 is the most difficult one. They all reveal a little bit of story and experience that we have in life.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And our guest gets to decide between numbers 11 and 100, which ones they want. I'm going to do the first 10 questions real quick, real easy. And then we will hand over to them and they'll choose them. And so it's just, imagine you have a cup of tea and sitting down with a friend, you're having a great conversation, that's what we're going to do. Nothing's edited. It's just as it is. It's one-take wonder, and that's what we're going to be in. So let me connect right now and ask our friend here, what's your name? And is there anybody who slaughters your name in their pronunciation or misunderstands it?

Andrew Jahn:

Well, good afternoon, Japhet. My name is Andrew Jahn, and there's a number of people who get my last name wrong. Lot of, lot of people, when I introduce myself, they say, "Can I have your last name?"

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Andrew Jahn:

Because I have two first names. The uniqueness about my last name is it's spelled with an A, it's German and it's J-A-H-N. Very few people, when they read that, come up with Jahn on the first try.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. What do they say?

Andrew Jahn:

Many people come up with more accurate pronunciations, like Han, Yan, John, all of which are probably closer to the intended pronunciation that two generation, just two generations in America my family has lost.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Uh-huh (affirmative). Do people sometimes think that you've just given them your first two names?

Andrew Jahn:

Frequently. Frequently.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

Or, or I'll go to a restaurant and I'll have a reservation under Jahn and they're, and they say, "Can you give me your last name?" But it's my last name. Well, then can you give me your first name? They just want something more. It can't just start with Jahn. 

Japhet De Oliveira:

Have you ever thought about changing it?

Andrew Jahn:

No.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No?

Andrew Jahn:

I've never considered changing my last name.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. We'll work through that.

Andrew Jahn:

And I have four sons. So the name's going to stick around for a little while.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's going to stick around for a while. That's great. That's great. So Andrew, what do you do for work right now?

Andrew Jahn:

Japhet, I'm the president of Adventist Health Care Division.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. Which means?

Andrew Jahn:

It says that my title doesn't tell you anything about what I do. So...

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. It's like what's a Care Division?

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. So my role, in my role, I have executive responsibility for the patient-facing portion of our business in Adventist Health. Now, that includes 24 acute care hospitals, 305 ambulatory clinics, a half dozen surgery centers, any place where care is delivered, those teams report up through me and my team.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow. That's a lot, a lot of responsibility. That's fantastic. You enjoy it?

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. I love what I'm doing. It's interesting. When I stepped into this role, it was a new role. It was a reorg for our company. And what I like about that is it's allowed me to make the role mine. I wasn't replacing somebody or stepping into someone else's shoes into a defined position. And actually that's the way I prefer it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. That's fantastic. So how long have you been in this current role?

Andrew Jahn:

Call it 18 months. It started about the first of 2020.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. So basically two birth cycles, right?

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. Right.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great. That's fantastic. All right. So in the morning, Andrew, do you have a glass of water first? Do you have one of those green liquid smoothies? Do you have a coffee? Do you have a tea? What's your first drink of the day?

Andrew Jahn:

Does this qualify as the first question or was my name really the first question?

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, your name was the first question. You're thinking I'm getting through these 10 real quick.

Andrew Jahn:

Knocking them out. Japhet, the first thing I do in the morning is have a glass of water.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Andrew Jahn:

And the very second thing I do is make coffee.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Uh-huh (affirmative). You make the coffee yourself?

Andrew Jahn:

I do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Is it like an instant button one or you grind the beans, you brew the beans?

Andrew Jahn:

No, I don't believe in instant coffee. It starts with grinding beans.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh.

Andrew Jahn:

There's a whole process. It would take the rest of this half hour segment to tell you. Look, my mornings are sacred, I get up early. I'm the first one up in my house. Although, some of my kids are starting to adopt my habits. So it's usually about a quarter to five. If I don't have an appointment or set an alarm, I get up about quarter to five and I have a good 35 to 40 minutes to process my day, drink my coffee. It takes most of the... It takes almost 35 of those minutes to make the coffee, but to drink my coffee, to have a latte, if it's a special day and just connect. I use it [for] devotional time, et cetera.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I was going to ask you if you're an early riser or a night owl. I take it that you're an early riser.

Andrew Jahn:

I have an early, I'm an early riser that goes to bed late. I am fortunate to not require a great deal of sleep.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Is that really a well-being model?

Andrew Jahn:

Here's the thing, when I took that Real Age test just a few weeks ago, the biggest... so I took it about three times just because I wanted to know what would swing those answers.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Of course, you did.

Andrew Jahn:

The amount of sleep I got was the biggest variable that added or subtracted to my Real Age.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Andrew Jahn:

When I lied about my sleep, I'm going to live to be a hundred.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well. Yeah, sleep, sleep. Yeah. I hear you. I hear you. That's pretty good. All right. Andrew, where were you born?

Andrew Jahn:

I was born in a rural community in Southwest Missouri, right up against the Kansas-Missouri state line.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And have you been back there?

Andrew Jahn:

I have. Yeah. I've been back frequently. My family farm is in Southeast Kansas, right against that Kansas-Missouri border. I happened to be born on the other side of the border, but I'm a Kansas native. There's just no hospitals there.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. So when you were a child, did you imagine that this is what you would do? Is this what you dreamed... As a child.

Andrew Jahn:

No. I had no inclination that I would serve almost 20 years in healthcare.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, what did you imagine you wanted to be when you grew up then as a child?

Andrew Jahn:

Well, I'll tell you the things that got me excited. First of all, I enjoyed farming and agricultural lifestyle. There was a part of me that thought I was going to be a farmer when I grew up. I had a grandfather that was a fighter pilot in World War II. And he told captivating stories that connected all three of my brothers to aviation. And there was for a brief moment, I was going to be a fighter pilot, like my grandfather.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

There was a segment of my life where I thought I'd be in the medical field, but I was thinking more along the provider track line, like a doctor or a nurse. And ultimately, God's providence brought me into healthcare. And I found a career path with a tremendous opportunity to make an impact in an industry that connects with people at critical moments in their lives. And to me, that's pretty powerful.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. That's fantastic. What's the... You got up so early this morning, what's the first thing you thought of this morning.

Andrew Jahn:

This morning?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. This morning. Just this morning.

Andrew Jahn:

So last night I was doing a little home improvement project, putting down epoxy flooring. The first thing, I could not wait to go outside and see if it was intact.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. That's good.

Andrew Jahn:

So I did, it was still dark. I went out there with a flashlight just to see how it turned out.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great. All right. I've got to ask you a leadership question here before we hand over to you to choose the number here. Are you a backseat driver?

Andrew Jahn:

No, I'm the driver.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. 

Andrew Jahn:

If my hands are in the steering wheel and not in the car, Japhet.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're not in the car or the motorcycle. Right?

Andrew Jahn:

Right.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right. All right. So...

Andrew Jahn:

But I'm not sure I took that as a leadership question. I was...

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, no, you're just driving the car.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, I hear you. I hear you. All right. So let's dive in 11 to 100, a hundred being obviously the hardest, most vulnerable, most open question and 11 being the easiest. 

Andrew Jahn:

Let's split the difference and start at 50.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right. I'm scrolling through my digital question sheet here, and let's go to number 50. Share about who has influenced you professionally.

Andrew Jahn:

Oh, wow. You know what I tell people this, in fact, I just told the class of university students yesterday, I've benefited from working for a group of leaders who have quite literally gone out of their way to make sure that I had experienced and exposed to the things that would push me to the steep edge in my learning curve.

Andrew Jahn:

The first leader in that category, a gentleman named Doug Hilliard, and Doug's a healthcare colleague of mine. I believe he's the CFO for the hospital today. But at the time he was, when I first knew Doug, he was my manager and the controller for Florida Hospital. And I can recall, and Doug and I are pretty close in age. I mean, maybe four or five years apart, but I can recall Doug giving me assignments that were way outside of my wheelhouse just to see what I'd do with them. And one that I was particularly struggling with, I finally went back into his office and I said, "Doug, I have to admit, I don't know anything about what you're asking me to do right here, right now." And he said, "I know that. I wanted to know if you knew that."

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow. That's a good lesson.

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Have you had the chance to tell Doug that?

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. We keep in contact. We happen to ... Our first, my first son and his first daughter were born within days of each other. And so we kind of launched into parenthood at about the same time and we still worked closely together. And our professional paths haven't crossed very much since. That was almost 20 years ago. But our personal paths, we've stayed connected through various channels. I would say loosely connected. But I think a great deal of him as an individual and his character. He's definitely a purpose-driven individual.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's great to have people in your life that you admire personally, as well as professionally. That's great. That's lovely. Yeah. All right. Where'd you want to go? Do you want to go down or you want to go up?

Andrew Jahn:

Well, 50 wasn't that hard. So let's keep going up.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right.

Andrew Jahn:

Let's go to number 60.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. When in life have you felt most alone?

Andrew Jahn:

I'll tell you, loneliness is something that doesn't visit very often for me. I usually, I combat loneliness by surrounding myself with people or activity. So there's not very much opportunity for it to creep in. But I would tell you from a professional standpoint, it's easy to feel alone when the burden of responsibility doesn't feel shared or shared evenly. And for me, that's something that I have to both philosophically and then I would say fundamentally struggle against to make sure that, I remind myself that I'm part of a large complex organization and we're all there to share and carry each other's burdens. It was particularly impactful to me earlier this week, we have an executive in our company. He leads our Well-Being Division, his name is Ben Leedle. And along that theme, he made the distinction between accountability and responsibility. And the distinction he made was accountability cannot be shared, but responsibility can be shared.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Andrew Jahn:

I think when I'm feeling alone, it is partly that sense of accountability, and the way to solve for that is to share responsibility.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good. That's good. Good. All right. Where are you feeling now?

Andrew Jahn:

Well, maybe we should just dip back down to 25 just to see what's down there.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK. All right.

Andrew Jahn:

Because I'm afraid.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're afraid.

Andrew Jahn:

I'm afraid to stumble.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're like, well, after that one, I think, right? 25. Share the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.

Andrew Jahn:

I have a three-pane, studio-framed picture in my living room. It's a photograph that a friend of mine captured in the middle of a storm on Mount Shasta.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Andrew Jahn:

And if you've driven I-5 from say Sacramento to Bend, Oregon, or Sacramento to Medford, you've seen this frame of Mount Shasta. Well, this particular picture was taken right at sunrise as the sun was coming up with clouds on top of the mountain, creating this, I mean, creating hurricane force winds at the top of the mountain, and swirling that in such a way that it just painted this amazing picture of color and contrast, and violence and calm. And the added kind of element for me around the beauty of that picture is when my friend snapped that shot, I was about halfway toward the top of the summit that morning. We'd started about 4:00 a.m., and at sunrise, we were at this spot just above Bunny Flat. And I could actually tell you where I stood right at that sunrise picture.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh my, oh my.

Andrew Jahn:

But it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. And it's nature at its best. And it's well-captured.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So it's a picture of you in the midst of it and the complexity of it all.

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. Except for anyone who looks at that. And it's three big frames. It's probably spans eight feet. No one would see any individual in there. No one would see a single person. It's three big canvas frames. If at the very best, I'd be a speck up on that mountain. But to me, it's beautiful because I got to see it firsthand. And I was part of that picture.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, that's fantastic. It was beautiful. Beautiful. Good. Where'd you want to go next?

Andrew Jahn:

Let's bounce back up.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Andrew Jahn:

We left off at 60. Let's go 65.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right, 65 it is. Share one word that you could use to describe your past, then could you unpack that one word.

Andrew Jahn:

My past?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

I'll use the word focused, which for people who know me really well may find some irony in that. But the reason I'm using that word is I've always been very intentional and very focused about where I'm going. I started writing down goals when I was about 16. And I found that if I wrote things down, they just, they happened. And I don't reference them every day. I don't reference them every month, but probably two or three times a year. I look at what's written down on my list and I'll tell you that it's... I make that list of matter shared accountability. So I tell people about items that are on that list. And I found that when I tell, when I admit to somebody that this particular, that a particular goal is on the list, it makes me more likely to go chase that goal. And when I keep goals a secret, it's much easier to say that can be the next decade. I don't have to do that by the time. I'm...

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's nice.

Andrew Jahn:

Thirty, 40, 50.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Oh, that's nice. That's pretty good. So focused. That's good. I like that. Good. All right. Where'd you want to go next?

Andrew Jahn:

Let's go to number 70.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Number 70. All right. This is interesting. This one. Tell us about one thing that you are determined to accomplish. You just talked about your goals. So tell us about one thing that you're determined to accomplish.

Andrew Jahn:

Written down on my list...

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

Is raising five children who are contributing members of the Christian faith, who hold God in high regard and understand the connection between the purpose in their lives and God's calling. And that is a shared goal between my wife and I, that quite literally, we wake up every day focused on figuring out how we're going to make sure that we raise our kids in such a way that they remain connected to Christ. And I will tell you, there are days where we get that so wrong. There are weeks when we missed that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Welcome to parenting.

Andrew Jahn:

There are weeks when we miss out on that. But that's a shared goal that we've written... We wrote it down. We hold each other accountable and I'd welcome anybody who has the misfortune of listening to this podcast to help hold me accountable to that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Hey, that's a, look, that's a great goal. Building people of character. Right? Really, really important. Really really important. And sometimes we hope it happens, but if there's no real intention behind it, that's where it takes all the effort. So I love that really. That's pretty good. Great. All right. We're doing really well. We have time, I think for two more, your final two, where do you want to go?

Andrew Jahn:

Number 12.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Number 12. All right. Number 12 would be, what is your favorite movie or book of all time and why?

Andrew Jahn:

I love the whole Mission: Impossible Sequence. I love every one of those.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

I don't even particularly love the acting. I just love the stories.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

And so I've been a Mission: Impossible fan since, I'm going to say maybe 1996, when the first Mission: Impossible movie came out.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Andrew Jahn:

And if Tom Cruise has it in him to make another one, I'd watch.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You'd support it.

Andrew Jahn:

I'd at least watch it on Netflix.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Did you like the original Mission: Impossible or just...

Andrew Jahn:

Yeah. I loved it. Yeah, but I've loved every one since then.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's really cool. That's really cool. Great. Great. Well then your final question, which number do you want to go to?

Andrew Jahn:

OK. I'm not going to whisk out. We're going to straight to a hundred.

Japhet De Oliveira:

OK.

Andrew Jahn:

And if we crash and burn here, we'll know we tried, Japhet.

Japhet De Oliveira:

We tried. OK. All right. Well, so here's the question 100 and yeah, let me just, let me share it. Tell us about one question that you just don't want to answer.

Andrew Jahn:

One question. I don't want to answer?

Japhet De Oliveira:

That you just don't want to answer.

Andrew Jahn:

I'll tell you the question I hate answering is people ask me what's next. Sometimes it's in professional context, sometimes it's in personal context, but the reason I hate that question is because I've always felt that if I can do an extremely good job at what's now, what's next will just happen. And so I would much rather focus on doing a good job today, whether that's cutting the grass or building a house or running the Care Division of Adventist Health, than focus on what's next. Because I believe that what's next is less of my plan and more of His plan.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's a profound philosophy of life, as well. I like how you tied that into the question you don't want to answer, but you did. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. So Andrew, you are, you're a leader. Who's also invested in many, many leaders. You shaped culture. You've shaped, you're shaping this company, as well. I've seen the way that you vision and you vision-cast, as well. What would be something for our listeners who are thinking about the stories that have shaped them, memories that have shaped them, what would be some wisdom that you would lay in their life? If you looked back at yourself at 21 and said, this is what I would say to myself at 21.

Andrew Jahn:

I don't know if it qualifies as wisdom, Japhet, but when it comes to professional advice, I would always tell you, and anyone else who asked, never be more concerned about keeping your job than you are about doing your job. And in instances, and I could point to four or five over the course of my career, where I felt like it was my job to do a thing or make a call that also came with a set of risks. And what I would say is be willing to take those risks, because that demonstrates, that demonstrates why you're, why you're in the role. And by the way, when you take those risks, you have to know that it may not in the way you expect or want it to. But I think that if young leaders coming up, not just in this organization, but in any organization can remain focused on staying, keeping their compass focused on doing their job, whatever that job description is and less focused on taking the safe route to quote, keep that job.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic. Well, Andrew, thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for being honest. Thank you for the vulnerability, as well. And thank you for leaping all the way up to 100, as well. That was a really wonderful take-on. Really appreciate it.

Andrew Jahn:

My pleasure, Japhet. Thanks for the opportunity and do appreciate your expertise in the space.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No worries.

Andrew Jahn:

What a great job, chief storyteller.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. Well, you've been listening to The Story & Experience Podcast, and I want to encourage you to continue sharing your story and your experiences with your friends and with your community because you shape your own life and you shape the lives of those around you. God bless.

Narrator:

Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience Podcast. We invite you to read, watch and submit your story and experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health for the Office of Culture