I think you have done it on the educational front, and I can’t say enough good
things about what you’ve accomplished in that regard. The problem is now we need
to extend it to other medical schools and to the entire health-care system.
I’m just going to close with what I think a few of the active ingredients are. And
in my two days here, I’ve seen them in action here. These are the ingredients, the
key things to bake this cake. You tell me what you think about whether you’ve really
demonstrated them.
1. The first is you have to have a mission statement that you actually intend
to fulfill. Every medical school, every university has a mission statement.
They’re all aspirational. Yours is focused, and you’ve been deadly serious
about meeting it. You have the most focused mission statement I’ve ever seen
for a medical school. And you’ve been relentless in every one of your programs
to line up your activities with that mission statement. That’s the key
ingredient. That’s the flour in this cake, right?
2. The next thing you need is a different kind of leadership. For a long time
we believed great leaders were like Patton, right? Standing on the tank with
chrome pistols, you know? In command! The leadership today is very different.
It’s integrated leadership. It’s highly, highly interactive. It’s servant leadership.
I spent a lot of time with the leaders – not just here in Tallahassee, but
I had a chance to video with the regional campus deans and others, some of
whom I know are watching. You are displaying integrated leadership. Dean
Fogarty is a very, very talented person, but he could never get that mission
fulfilled as a commander. He could only do it surrounded by a group of likeminded
leaders. I saw leadership from the students today when I saw some
of the things that they do in your outreach programs. It’s not a single leader;
it’s widely distributed leadership. So that’s the second ingredient.
3. The third one is teamwork…. Everywhere I’ve looked in this College of
Medicine, I’ve seen teams. Your Learning Communities are teams, right?
As students. It permeates the curriculum. Your outreach programs are teambased.
You understand it’s the power of the team, it’s the wisdom of the
team. None of us, as an individual, can get it done.
4. The film really illustrated the fourth ingredient I would mention, and that’s
a focus on results…. What I’m impressed by is you’re actually saying not
just, “Are we doing good things?” but “Are we really delivering on what we
promised – what we promised when we were established and what we say in
our mission statement, what we say to our students when they apply?” You’re
measuring your results in line with your promises.
5. The fifth one is a little – you might say softer; I would actually say it’s one
of the most important. It’s this: Don’t ever, ever think this is about politics.
I know it took a political process to establish this school, but once you are
established it’s about ethics…. When you have expansive areas of Florida
where people can’t even get to health care, when you have people searching
in vain for decent primary-care homes, that’s not a just health-care system.
So it isn’t a political issue; it is an ethical issue for any of us who have any
concern about health care.
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