Staying “all in for IR,” with agility

By Susan E. Sedory Holzer, MA, CAE

SIR Executive Director

How do you recover from the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting?

If you were part of the incredible physician turnout in Atlanta, or if you tuned in for any of the 10 hours of live streamed sessions, I hope you’re still feeling the positive energy that permeated every aspect of the meeting. Throughout the educational sessions, expo hall and numerous special events, attendees, faculty and corporate partners were “all in for IR.”

Maybe you’ve already found ways to put into practice a new research finding, treatment approach or clinical care tip that you learned. Perhaps you’re curious to know more about some of the strategic accomplishments your SIR leaders highlighted throughout the week. If you are one of SIR’s volunteers or leaders, you may have already booked your flight for our next event. Chances are we tapped you as faculty for the Fellows Spring Practicum, plan to leverage your insights at one of our upcoming strategic planning meetings, or rely on you to represent our unified voice and share evidence with the many audiences who influence IR’s future.

As staff, before we even start unpacking the boxes, we are sifting through the hard and soft data that we gather at the annual meeting and thinking about how to retool and rework our activities. As your society, we know we need the capacity and willingness to innovate and ensure that not just next year’s meeting but everything we do in between is strategically moving us forward.

One commonality is that none of us has time to slow down. In this era of rapid change, we’re all led to believe that only those who can keep one step ahead—in their processes, thinking and actions— are poised to succeed. But keeping one step ahead isn’t about being first or even fast; rather, it’s about organizational resilience and agility.

You don’t need to search far to find numerous books and articles about resilience and agility (one of SIR’s new brand pillars). One article I recently came across characterized agility as a blending of strategic responsiveness and organizational flexibility. Specifically, the authors stress the importance of having both the ability to sense new risks and opportunities as well as the facility to shift execution rapidly.

Through stronger messaging and the means to collect quality and outcome metrics, IR is well positioned to make its way into the mainstream—a patient’s web search, a primary care physician’s waiting room, the hospital administrator’s office and the halls of legislature. If we’re successful, we will find many exciting new opportunities and hear many urgent calls for action for the field. Delivering on that success will mean having the capacity to take on ambitious and timely initiatives while also having the mettle to pass on what is not in the long-term interests of the specialty.

As your executive director, I am grateful for the leadership and expertise afforded by our 2015–16 Executive Council and officers. Through the power of this highly engaged group of volunteers—activated by a targeted strategic plan—I am confident about the purpose and the precision with which we approach our work. They ensure we balance member-centric strategic responsiveness with synergistic staff and volunteer organizational flexibility to deliver on our brand promise.

Being “all in for IR” means applying strategic focus to the most meaningful programs and issues that will produce the greatest results. Staying “all in for IR” is up to each of us—members, volunteers and leaders—to keep our eyes on the horizon and move with agility around both opportunity and distraction.