| | 9 OCTOBER 2023`virtual' consultations with patients over the internet, change was rampant. Staff leading those changes were encouraged to try out their best ideas and most importantly allowed to fail. It is hard to see how that pace of change can be maintained in more normal times, but I fear we will be worse for the loss of it. 3. Collaboration. Waste of time, effort, money - occurs most at the interfaces of different services. If we can get services ­ and particularly clinicians - to work more synergistically, then much of that `friction' can be reduced. Collaboration - today's `mot juste,' it seems--on its own isn't the answer to anything. But a lack of collaboration will frustrate almost everything. It facilitates innovation, can reduce waste and inefficiency, and maintain the services while doing so. But, while collaboration will enable new leaders to flourish in new models of care, it also takes leadership to get there. 4. Restoration and Reconstitution. Clinical services were savaged by the physical and psychological impacts of the pandemic, in ways few of our staff were trained to deal with. Like a military unit extracting from a protracted battle, to make it an effective unit again requires multiple processes of restoration, recovery, repair, and reconstitution.Often that means more than just giving time, space, and resources to services allow them to recover, but actively wrapping support around these services - some were so damaged that they cannot simply `heal themselves' and the effects of this are still playing out. This needs time and space to recover, resources and reinforcements to replace what was lost--sometimes works at odds with the other, legitimate need to double down on productivity to treat those patients whose conditions went untreated during the pandemic, and the backlogs that ensued. But we will struggle to develop leaders until the `wounds are dressed' and there are teams in a state to be led. Balancing the application of resources to treating the next patient vs supporting the staff is not easy. But we should remember that, in some ways, the primary role of a clinical leader is to look after their staff, so the staff can look after the patients. This isn't a plan or even a diagnosis ­ but I think they are important concepts to address if we are to capitalise on the clinical leadership we have and develop and engage the leaders of the future. And this is our job. As Ralph Nader once said, ""...the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers". We can keep encouraging each other to do more or do better, but nothing will change if nothing changes. BALANCING THE APPLICATION OF RESOURCES TO TREATING THE NEXT PATIENT VS SUPPORTING THE STAFF IS NOT EASY. BUT WE SHOULD REMEMBER THAT, IN SOME WAYS, THE PRIMARY ROLE OF A CLINICAL LEADER IS TO LOOK AFTER THEIR STAFF, SO THE STAFF CAN LOOK AFTER THE PATIENTS
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