After one day of meeting, the Telluride Experience already has me considering patient safety and quality improvement in new ways. I’ve always struggled with educational programs that tell the class that they all need to be “leaders”. If everyone has to be the one in charge then how can there also be collaborative teamwork? For this reason, I really enjoyed this morning’s “Safety Moment”, a video clip which discussed the importance of the “First Follower”, the first person to go along with a leader’s new idea. The first follower – which could represent the “early adopters” in change management – is crucial to bringing a bright idea into practice. I appreciated how this video called attention to the value in recognizing a great idea by a peer, going out of your way to support the idea, and being willing to accept change because it is for the good. In some ways being the first follower carries more weight than being the leader because you become the catalyst for actual change. One of my biggest motivators for attending this conference was to learn how to contribute to progress in my institution and so I found this lesson to be a great takeaway.
