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Hitting a Second Wind

AACP Article

INsight 2020 provided attendees a chance to recharge with new connections, strategies and perspectives from Puerto Rico.

Why is change necessary? What needs to change within an organization to shift its culture? Dr. Noel E. Wilkin, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, professor and research professor at The University of Mississippi, kicked off programming at INsight 2020 by exploring the questions needed to facilitate effective change.

“Most organizations don't spend any time thinking about what needs to happen below the water-line,” he said, referring to Torben Rick's “Iceberg” of organizational culture. Later asking the audience to find which direction was north without the use of a compass, Wilkin demonstrated the ways employees try to “find their bearings” within a culture: whether seeing which way others in the audience were turning, trying to find external markers and more.

On Sunday, Rear Admiral Pamela Schweitzer underscored her keynote with an anecdote from a recent outdoor adventure: Hiking Mount Shasta, elevation 14,179 feet, was proving difficult until she hit an unexpected burst of energy in the form of a “second wind.” From her perspective as the retired assistant surgeon general and chief pharmacist officer of the U.S. Public Health Service, this is something the profession of pharmacy needed to keep pace with changes in healthcare.

"Filling prescriptions is not going to be [the future of the profession]. There's some transformation going on—but it's moving slow. We can make this go way faster if we all work together."

Río Grande, Puerto Rico, proved a fitting backdrop for changing perspectives at INsight 2020, contrasting with the winter weather in the continental U.S. Social media highlighted some of these view-changing presentations, on topics ranging from leading culture change to developing interprofessional practice teams:

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