I was very fortunate this weekend to attend the opening, or orientation, session for MedClass III, a leadership learning commununity under the auspices of the Houston Chapter of the American Leadership Forum.  This will be a year-long undertaking by 24 individuals, all of whom work within the Texas Medical Center.  Our goals include the usual endpoints of networking and collaboration, but perhaps the methods we will use to achieve these important aims is a bit different from the usual 4 to 8 hr workshop (which, to me, always feels a bit forced, or even contrived). 

 

We started slowly this weekend, with an icebreaker where we simply visited for 25-30 min and asked each other canned questions we had been handed as we stepped in the door.  Mine related to: 1) what value is most important to us (actually the question was phrased "Which value would be most difficult for you to give up?"); and 2) to whom to you most often turn for advice?  Other questions were similarly thought-provoking, e.g. "Whom do you admire more--Hillary Clinton or Condi Rice?", while some were less serious, e.g. "What is your favorite movie? (and why). 

 

I did not have to answer my own questions, but will do so here: 1) Integrity and/or honesty (are they the same?) is/are most important to me; and 2) I most often turn to my best friend (who also happens to be my wife) for advice (I used to go to my dad regularly as well, though, sadly, he is now gone).  Oh, and: 1) I admire Hillary much more than Condi; and 2) "Bull Durham", because its a funny baseball movie, but at the same time a poignant love story (and well-acted by Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner besides).

 

Later in the weekend we proceeded to our seven minute stories.  I'll post mine in another entry, but suffice it right now to say that I'm a bit more of a matter-of-fact, state-my-beliefs, kind of person, not one easly given over to tellling my story through stories, and if the truth were told, probably more guarded/less willing to risk deep disclosure than were a number of others in the group.  Hopefully I can open up and learn to trust the others in the class at least a bit more as our year goes by.  I'll try to keep you posted.