From Our CEO: Publish or Perish — Is That Still So?

Information helps us decide how to interact with our surroundings. The digital world presents ways for all of us to learn and grow.

We have all heard the old academic adage, and many of us have lived by it: “publish or perish.” But in this day and age, the context for that old adage has profoundly changed.

Peter Angood

Having spent the better part of 25 years in academia, I remember clearly being a junior faculty member and the fear factor about how to ascend the academic ranks, and not comprehending how best to go about that process. Everything seemingly was clouded in secrecy, and with unwritten codes of expectation. Later, when serving as senior faculty, I remember thinking how, even despite an effort to create objective guidelines, there was still a high degree of subjectivity within the promotion committees on which I served. It was a disappointing reality of our higher education environment to which I never fully ascribed.

Now as an association leader, there is an even more intense — albeit significantly different — pressure related to that adage.

It’s sometimes referred to as the Information Age; at other times, a “digital era.” Either way, the transformation to which we are all adapting has created a megatrend of global proportion. In the association management world, this constellation of influences is rampant and creates significant opportunity to seek methods of transforming how to do business.

Digital technologies and information management are disrupting practically every industry.

We Are Not in This Alone

With the rapid pace of change, more and more companies find themselves being disrupted. Recently, in a survey of more than 1,000 CEOs (from 131 countries and 27 industries, in organizations of varying sizes), and 90 percent of them believe their organizations are being disrupted or reinvented by digital business models. What’s more, 70 percent believe they do not have the right skills, leaders or operating structure to adapt.

The research was conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review, in cooperation with Deloitte University Press. You can see the report at bit.ly/2hbPL8R, but its highlights include:

• Creating an effective digital culture must be an intentional and purposeful effort.

• Senior-level talent in successful organizations appear more committed to digitally maturing enterprises and tend not look for other opportunity.

• Digitally maturing organizations have to invest in developing and retaining their own talent.

• Soft skills always trump technology knowledge in driving digital and cultural transformation.

• Digital congruence is the crux. Culture, people, structure, and tasks must align with each other, company strategy and the challenges of a constantly changing digital landscape.

Like those leaders, I also believe the association has been disrupted — but we already have embraced heartily the opportunity for change as a result. Unlike those leaders, however, I believe we have significantly transformed our association to have the right skills, staff leaders and operating structure for continuing to adapt in an ongoing fashion. We are clearly on the leading edge of association management trends and are even well-placed to help lead other professional societies and associations with the how-to knowledge on adaptation in this complex, ever-changing environment. It’s a bold, but well-founded, statement.

Being CRISP

No, CRISP isn’t a reference to the winter months you might be enduring, nor the vegetables in your refrigerator. It is how we lead and manage our association. It is the acronym for a philosophy we have developed and embraced within our daily operations.

It is a constellation of business-efficiency methods assembled from a diverse set of models within high-performing organizations in other industries. We are well along our path of cultural adoption and, so far, it works well for our association. Digital congruence, mentioned above, is at the crux of our operations. It is what we do.

CRISP: Continuous Renewal by Innovating and Seeking Perfection

Knowledge Merchant

A core function of the association is providing knowledge and information. It is a significant portion of our obligation to our members and various other customers. The impact of the transformation imposed by digital environments creates opportunity to learn new ways to manage our information channels and to expand our publications portfolio.

With this issue of the Physician Leadership Journal, you will begin noticing changes. Instead of a primary focus on publication of a hard-copy magazine viewed simply as a member benefit, the association is continuing to open its aperture of digital offerings and expand its variety of informational resources.

The association’s website, like all websites, needs constant refinement, and we have the team in place to keep ours current, user-friendly and intuitive. Our mobile app has been in place several months, and we are further expanding its capability. The Physician Leadership Library is growing consistently, and its information offerings expand weekly with a host of multimedia materials. The educational course offerings are available online and can be accessed from a variety of devices.

The PLJ already is available digitally and is now being integrated further into our Library. The association’s book publishing is being further expanded, and the number of titles not directly published by the association is expanding. Our other digital streams (such as the Daily Digest email) are reviewed continually and adjusted to meet evolving needs for contemporary information. And, of course, our social media channels are constantly refreshed to keep up with our other, rapidly expanding digital offerings.

In doing all of that, our digital foundation and evolving multimedia technology platform always will be under development and seeking refinement. We’re deeply committed to meeting our members’ needs and cultural demands.

To successfully provide information and content of value across a variety of delivery platforms, we’ve assembled — for the first time in our history — an editorial board, and we will announce its members in a future issue. Anthony Slonim, MD, DrPH, is our new editor-in-chief, and Jason Davis is our new managing editor. Together, they will work closely with the editorial board and our senior staff to integrate our media portfolio in a contemporary manner.

By being CRISP, we are clearly rising to meet the demand to “publish or perish” in a modern context … and we will stay CRISP in this process.

Cherish the Past, But Don’t Dwell

I readily admit that I do not miss my bygone days of banging around in academia, preoccupied with the traditional version of the “publish or perish” adage. From an outsider’s perspective, it might appear as if I succeeded. But, personally, I still think more could have been accomplished within that traditional environment. I do not dwell on it, however, because the future is where each of us can create opportunity to embrace change. Our past experiences only help make us better as we move forward.

Recognizing and embracing the opportunity for change is what leaders do. Navigating the opportunity for change is what successful leaders accomplish. Facilitating and integrating the opportunity to help others change is where the art of leadership resides. We always achieve more in this world when we focus upon helping others achieve.

Essentially, leadership is always about people.

In order for the association to continue succeeding within our complex industry, we must embrace the “publish or perish” adage. Its context, however, has shifted dramatically toward information management and a digital technology era. Our association is well-placed to continue forward for both on a successful trajectory.

And Generation Z, the one following our millennials, has begun driving trends even sooner than we realize. As an association, we are already planning for that eventuality while simultaneously building a successful digital culture for our current members and customers. We look forward to, and sincerely want, your inputs and thoughts on how best to continue moving forward.

With all physicians being considered leaders, let us get more engaged, stay engaged and help others to become engaged. Creating a broader level of positive change in health care — and society — is within our reach. Helping to proactively manage transitions in our industry is a critical component of our professional responsibility ― in fact, it has been a professional responsibility since our beginnings.