Legacy Plannning

Legacy planning is not an ego thing; it's a responsibility. It goes hand-in-hand with mentoring and keeping the discipline alive and fresh.

I spent this afternoon with a group of senior faculty, junior faculty, and doctoral students all participating in a Professional Development Workshop sponsored by the Health Care Management Division of the Academy of Management. It's my annual early August conference where I get to meet up with my once-a-year friends.

The panel I moderated topic focused on "Publishing". Four of us Editors of journals provided tips on how to get pushed. Nuts and bolts information. I organized my comments by 4 audiences (editor, reviewers, readers and publishers) and doing your homework. I noticed lots of note taking while I was presenting. After our presentations we broke into small group discussions and had informal sharing across the levels of expertise.

We all have stories and experiences that can enrich each other's understanding. Although the competition to get published is fierce, the collegial support generally and predominantly trumps all.  It might be that we, those with experience, are hoping to spare others of the pains and steer them clear of time sinks. Or, maybe we feel a responsibility to make the next generation even better than we were. Or, maybe there's some perverse competition about who can be more helpful. It doesn't matter.

After a coffe break, we had small group sharing of our hopes and fears related to our work. Those in my group, again the full range from senior faculty to doctoral studens, were delightfully honest. The elephants got noticed. We laughted. One thread to the sharing ran like this: how do I know which path to take? how will I find good collaborators?  The answers included "have faith" and "trust yourself".  Two answers that we tend to forget, even though we were taught these answers since we were children. As we concluded, the consensus was that the workshop made the next generation feel valued and supported. Yes, I do love my intellectual children and grandchildren. And, those facing the academe or not choice began to see and experience some of the upsides to this astoundingly autonomous, interesting, and challenging life.