Setting the stage for the next five years in FHS and SEAMO

I gave a talk on ‘daring leadership’ recently, and my thesis was this: if you’re going to be a daring leader, you must know your purpose. You must know what you’re trying to accomplish.  

This applies to organizations too. In fact, when you have hundreds - or thousands - of people working together, a common purpose is essential.

Let me share an example to illustrate the importance of a strong vision. It’s from earlier in my career where I helped start a Family Medicine training program in Ethiopia, affiliated with Addis Ababa University. We were in a country where training in Family Medicine had never existed, and the specialty had never been recognized. It was a mammoth undertaking, and required five years of preparation, raising awareness, earning trust, conducting a detailed needs assessment, preparing a made-in-Ethiopia family medicine curriculum. It was the vision that kept us going. It included all the conversations about how fantastic it would be for “GPs” to be recognized as those specialized in comprehensive generalism, for them to receive the broad-based training to enable them to be effective, competent clinicians working in every region of the country.  

We believed in the vision. We dared to think we could get such a program launched. We found all the right partners and champions, and in February 2013, with its first eight residents, the training started. The program continues to grow, now led by one of its first graduates. 

This month we are launching a strategic planning process with the guidance of The Potential Group. The process will culminate in the creation of a new strategic plan for the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) and a new strategic plan for the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization (SEAMO).

As we move through this process, your input – whether you are a learner, a staff member, a faculty member, alumni, or a member of the Queen’s or Kingston community – will be critical to ensuring that the visions that we set for the next five years truly resonate with our organizations.

For this reason, ensuring that each and every one of you has a voice in this process was a priority as we designed the planning process with The Potential Group. Between now and June, you will be invited to take part in the following: 

• Pollination sessions: online focus groups 

• Big questions: a series of 1-question surveys 

• Strategy hives: online planning sessions centered on specific topics 

Please watch your email, your calendars, the FHS Vitals newsletter and the SEAMO e-newsletter. We’ll be sending out dates, times, links to register and inviting you to participate in all of the activities above.  

Today we're launching some of the first opportunities for you to participate: sign up for a staff pollination session, faculty pollination session, student pollination session or an alumni pollination session (details coming soon). To see the full strategic planning timeline and answer the first Big Question, visit the FHS strategic planning website. 

Dreams, ideas, and visions are part of the human condition. There is evidence that the average person dreams 3-5 times per night. As you take part in this process, tap in to your own ability to dream. Then dream big! Let’s set our sights high and imagine what’s possible, together. 

I look forward to this journey with you. 

Jane