President's Page

President's Page
March 2007

Staying the Course and Navigating New Waters:
DCMS adopts mission statement to set priorities

by James T. Norwood, MD
2007 DCMS President

After my mother passed away last year, I was going through her house, and I found a sextant my father had brought back from the South Pacific at the end of World War II. I recalled his explanation to me about how using the sextant with a clock, map, calendar, and manuals would give him the ship's position in the ocean and help keep it on course. The sextant's design seems primitive compared to current GPS systems. Yet that simplicity is the tool's genius because its proper use enabled a captain to keep his ship and the entire convoy on course.

That sextant is a great example of how some of the simplest things can be a source of profound direction and guidance. The same holds true for an organization's mission statement and goals: the best ones are simple but powerful. Once they're set in place, the most successful and enduring organizations frequently reference their mission and goals to mark their current position and to stay on course as they proceed.

The Dallas County Medical Society now has such a mission statement, as a result of our strategic planning retreat in October. Keeping things simple and direct can be tough—crafting our mission statement took the effort of everyone at that retreat, and it's only 24 words long.

“The mission of the Dallas County Medical Society is to unite and empower physicians to support the health of citizens in the metropolitan region."

This statement certainly is not earth shattering and breaks no new ground. In fact, its simplicity belies the fact that its every word was selected carefully and debated, especially the words "unite," "empower," and "health."

Our mission is focused, but broad enough to encompass the wide-ranging and ever-changing demands on DCMS. Like the sextant, it is designed to keep us on course and to provide direction. To accomplish our mission we must unite—not only as physicians, but also with our patients and politicians. We must work to empower not only physicians, but also our patients. And in order to support the health of our citizens, physicians' practices and educational structure likewise must be in good health.

In the same way the sextant's clock, calendar, map, and manuals support its purpose, our goals must clearly support our mission statement. They must be focused but sufficiently flexible to address the broad needs of our organization and our community. We defined those goals at our October retreat, then narrowed and refined them in January to the following four major goals:

Be the voice of medicine through communications and membership involvement. This involves both internal and external communications.

Be a trusted community resource and leader through programs that enhance the community and provide leadership. Be a reliable resource for leadership within our community.

Be a legislative advocate to monitor, maintain, and become involved with issues that affect the health of our patients and community.

Be an activist for your profession. We must work to protect, improve, and strengthen the viability of our practices for the benefit of our community.

The complexity of these goals reflects the ambitious nature of our mission statement. Currently, eight of DCMS' 14 existing committees have been assigned the task of developing a strategy for achieving each goal in support of our mission statement. We have created two new committees—the Ad Hoc Committee on Regionalization and the Ad Hoc Committee on Communica-tions—to further support the breadth of DCMS' mission as we have defined it.

I am indebted to Past President David Bookout, MD, and to CEO Michael Darrouzet for getting this strategic planning process started last year. Because of the enthusiastic support and hard work of many of our members, we are continuing to move forward quickly, but deliberately and thoughtfully, and I am confident of our success. As new strategies are developed, you will be hearing from me. I want to make every member a part of this process through the web, email, surveys, and the Dallas Medical Journal. If you are interested in participating more fully, please contact me about serving on one of our two new committees.

I am excited about this great opportunity to "take a bearing" and keep our county medical society "on course." I encourage your feedback and participation. After all, this is your medical society.

There’s one last thing I want to talk about—you still have two chances to participate in TMA's First Tuesday program on April 3 and May 1. This is a great opportunity to see our Legislature in action, to visit with your senator and representative, to advocate for issues that affect your practice and your patients, and to visit with your colleagues. And who knows—you might have a new adventure in the process, as did Lisa Swanson, MD, who found herself posing for pictures wearing a live rattlesnake around her neck in February!

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