EMS Dashboard Confessional

One of my favorite quotes, that often serves as an introduction to many of my lectures, is “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it” by George Santayana (1863-1952). I find that, when it comes to mistakes, most people are hell-bent on making the same mistakes that other people have made, over and over. Unfortunately, one of the reasons behind this issue is that we are reluctant to share our mistakes publicly, often for fear of losing face, fear of retribution or discipline, or fear of liability.

I think these fears are mostly misplaced, and that EMS leaders need a forum to share their mistakes so that others can learn from them and (hopefully) not repeat them. My dream is a room full of leaders willing to stand up and tell everyone else there what they wish the could have done differently. Someday, I hope we can all reach this level of trust and collaboration, but for now I want to take a first step on this journey.

We have created the EMS Dashboard Confessional – an anonymous form where you can submit your personal leadership mistakes so that others can learn from them. Tell us what happened, why it happened, and what you would have done differently if you could do it all over again. Please submit these narratives anonymously, without any identifying information about yourself or your department. We ask for some optional information for data collection purposes that will not point in any way back to you, but you are not obligated to send us that data if you choose not to. We promise that we will make sure that any possible identifying information will be removed before anything is published.

We are going to publish one case study each month for you to review and learn from. Share your experiences with us, and with the rest of the EMS community, and hopefully we will all learn from them.

Want to submit your own EMS Dashboard Confessional? Click here.