by Ariel Finberg
There have been many pearls of knowledge shared with us during these last two days; all invaluable tools to help us as new leaders change the face of healthcare. My favorite bits of wisdom however came out of two of the games we played, the domino game yesterday and the teeter-totter game today. In the midst of the silliness, it was incredible to see how quickly and effective a quick debrief in between sessions was.
We started the domino game and failed almost immediately. After our allotted time, we met up to discuss what was a strength and what could be improved on for the next session. This quick 2 minute debrief COMPLETELY changed the outcome of the next two rounds. We were able to effectively communicate and work together to successfully complete the puzzles. The same thing occurred with the teeter totter game. We had a short debrief before starting the round about what worked and what didn’t in the previous round. It led to a smooth game, great communication and we came so close to completing the exercise without breaking any eggs (sorry lil’Billy & lil’Timmy)
I know these are small games and often focused on other points such as leadership and communication, however what I took most from it is how valuable the process of testing –> debriefing–> re-testing is. This is a tool that I believe could greatly benefit any system, especially the medical system. I know I write this as a naive M1, but I hope to incorporate these practices into my future career.