Culture and the Courage to Change - Member Profile - AAMC

Culture and the Courage to Change“Just as it requires courage to leave one countryand emigrate to a new one, it is going to takecourage for all of us in academic medicine, asindividuals and as institutions, to embrace ournew culture.”core organizational values change from competition to collaboration,from autonomy to interdependence, from private focus to transparencyand sharing of information and resources, from personal control totrusting one another? For many of our colleagues in academicmedicine, it must feel bewildering, like the rules have changed in themiddle of the game. In that light, it becomes much easier to understandthe distress so many of our colleagues express. They entered a world ofacademic medicine built around one culture, and now are asked toembrace a very different culture. No wonder so many of us express adesire to return to the “good old days.”This is where we come to courage. Just as it requires courage to leaveone country and emigrate to a new one, it is going to take courage for allof us in academic medicine, as individuals and as institutions, toembrace our new culture.While any change of this magnitude can be expected to engender a realsense of loss, there are three facts in which we can take great comfort.First, this change in culture is not only possible, it is actually wellunderway at many of our institutions. Second, we should realize thepotential for enormous personal fulfillment in a new kind of culture.Last, and most important, we do not have to abandon every element ofthe traditional culture of academic medicine. In fact, we should fight toretain our commitment to overall excellence, even as we shift fromdoing this as individuals to doing so in a new collaborative context.Excellence is excellence, regardless of how we get there.9Association of American Medical Colleges