Humans in Healthcare #31 | Collaboration

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📖 Today’s chapter: Collaboration is it better than competition?

A few times per week, I take a high-intensity yoga class.

Yeah, you read that right. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and yoga. Think Burpees meet Vinyasa and Down Dog.

Oh, and it’s heated. In peak Arizona heat, too 🫠

Aren’t yoga and HIIT the opposite of each other, you might ask? Yes and no. One is calm, slow, and focused on breathing and grounding. The other is intense, cardio-centric, and high-energy. Both focus on strength.

Duality can co-exist together. Both can be true at the same time. (Side note — this perfectly mirrors the duality of my personality. Anyone else?)

There are no scheduled breaks in the class as the instructors tell us to listen to our bodies and take what we need. Some people push to their max which might look like rest to others. My burpee numbers might be more than my neighbors. We all modify when we need to. Yet, we’re all in it together, as a community. Sometimes we fuel and feed off each other’s energy or we turn inward and leave everything on the mat.

We end every class as a community — turned toward each other to breathe together. Once for ourselves and a second time for those who cannot.

I walk away with a sense of wholeness and belonging every time.

What does this have to do with the Humans in Healthcare newsletter?

The best way I can describe the experience of the HIIT yoga class is this: we collaborate and cheer each other on as a community but are only competitive with our own selves.

I think that mindset is challenging for many of us in healthcare, especially when we are on a journey unique to our own time and place, yet are finding that others are in a similar space. Especially as some of us begin to use our skills creatively or become creators ourselves.

This is not always the case, but the culture of medicine can breed toxic competition and promote a territorial nature. This is in part due to our siloed identities and the way we engage in fragmented care and part because as clinicians, we’re taught to be the best — often perfection — so when it comes to working on things outside of patient care, it’s common for us to want to be the best there, too.

This mentality can carry over to the creator space. A ‘clinician creator’ is still a relatively nascent concept, so in some ways, we think we must be the first, best, or last standing if we want to succeed. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it becomes detrimental when competition means I’m only succeeding if you’re not, and vice versa. This is called a zero-sum mentality. Adopting this mentality can come at the expense of our inner peace especially if we get stuck in the comparison trap and see others succeeding while we’re struggling. I see this play out on social media. While it can be beneficial in some aspects, social media breeds unhealthy and toxic comparison and competition as well.

Coming from healthcare where I’ve often been met with a zero-sum mentality to the creator world one step outside of it has been interesting, but I’m thankful for my nonclinical experience which embraced a more positive-sum mindset— and they are a big reason why the core ethos of the Humans in Healthcare community is focused on collaboration over competition — where we can celebrate the successes of others while rooting for ourselves, too.

And so, part of what I’m building into the community elements of Humans in Healthcare is a safe space to meet other creators outside of the unhealthy comparison and competition of the creator space of social media.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get feedback from a built-in audience and potential user base who share similar values instead of putting your art out into the world and leaving it to the chance of social media algorithms, highlight reels, and zero-sum thinking? I sure think so.

Here are some tangible outcomes of the Humans in Healthcare community-driven collaboration already 👇️ 

• Two of the founding Humans in Healthcare community members (who did not know each other prior) discovered a mutual interest within a week of connecting in the community and a month later co-authored an article in the Psychiatric Times.

•  A clinician is getting certified in coaching and asked for early testers on practicing coaching methodology. Within minutes of their request, 4 people stepped up to help out. Some are getting their own coaching certification or exploring their methods so it has become a great value exchange

• The sponsor for this newsletter! The creator of the Career Cliniq is a member of the Humans in Healthcare community. We share so many similar interests and at the heart of what we are both trying to do is help humans find their sense of belonging in what they are doing in their careers. So I’m helping spread the word of her fabulous creation and she’s generously showing up in the community.

All happening behind the scenes in the ideate, build, test, iterate space ✨ 

Just like my HIIT-yoga class, I am trying to bring people together so that we can celebrate others and what others are creating while pushing ourselves to the limits of our own creations. Both can be true at the same time. We don’t need to be the best at something, just the best at one thing — being ourselves.

Each person has their own pace, their own race, their own journey. We can support each other without taking away from what we are building. We can shine bright so others can shine even brighter. We can show up for someone who is vulnerably putting their art into the world and invite them into our world so we can share art together.

I see so many of my clinician colleagues working toward change in healthcare while also seeking joy outside of it: in arts, writing, podcasting, building, community, coaching, consulting, founding, and investing, among many other things. It's inspiring. I hope to always create space for you. Let’s not see each other as invading space, rather, let’s create space for each other.

If you are stepping into the creative space and are met with toxic competition — remember this:

If you need a space to see the weight and significance of your story and art, join us.

In humanity,

Amy

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