Yesterday I had the great pleasure of addressing members of the American Orthopaedic Association at their annual meeting in San Antonio. You’d think it would be intimidating to stand in front of people who cut into other people for a living, but it wasn’t. They were warm, engaged, open-minded and had a great sense of humor–meaning, of course, that they laughed enthusiastically at all my jokes. Ah…surgeons with good taste.
In our discussion about the OS!M, I made the point that it’s a relative experience, that one person’s tiptoe through the tulips is another’s tap dance on the cactus. To me, just the thought of holding a scalpel with surgical intent gives me the quakes and sweats. To some of those surgeons, the prospect of public speaking would do the same. Others, I’m sure, would be terrified/horrified at the idea of expressing care and gratitude to their staff, nurses, etc.
The way we pursue the OS!M requires a great deal of self-awareness and courage and is, ultimately, a very personal thing–but one thing is universally true for all of us: if we’re not experiencing our own OS!Ms with some frequency in the context of our leadership endeavors, we’re just standing still. Posing.
And no one ever changed the world by doing that.
So…where’s your next OS!M going to come from?
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