Went to one of the new "transitions" sessions this morning. This one was about "reinventing yourself," or how to deal with downsizing, new career twists, and other changes. It was pretty general advice, not specific to CME providers, though the three session leaders had some compelling stories of their own to tell of transitions they'd gone through professionally, both positive and negative. They gave us several cases, then had us pick one to talk about with our tablemates.
We picked one where a hospital CME provider lost all her staff due to downsizing and had to figure out how to do it all herself, without any loss in quality or accreditation status. We agreed we would panic, then panic some more, but had a hard time getting past that. Once we did, we ended up doing what one of the presenters said everyone tended to do in these situations: Prioritize, figure out new ways to manage time, reflect on our own strengths and weaknesses and how best use what resources and relationships we had left.
Some things to watch out for are falling into a victim mindset and/or a negative attitude (even if the trajectory is upward, this can still happen if you think you might not be up to the new challenges).
It was interesting, and the presenters gave some really useful ways of thinking about and coping with career transitions. I'm not sure if it was interesting enough to try another transition session tomorrow, but maybe. I was thinking this would be very pertinent in today's economy, but attendance wasn't very high, so maybe people aren't facing too many transitions. Or if they are, they're concentrating more on learning some of the more CME-centric ways to move their career forward, rather than personal improvement.
Also working against this session was that it was held in one of the larger ballrooms, when it really needed a more intimate setting that would make it easier to share and brainstorm with each other. #acme2010
