SCCM Pod-497: Generational Differences in Practice and Learning

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Discover how the evolving healthcare landscape is shaped by the interplay between experienced veterans and emerging talents and how generational shifts influence decision-making, communication, and the development of future critical care professionals. This episode is a follow-up to the intriguing session held during the 2023 Critical Care Congress LEAD precourse titled Generational Differences in Practice and Learning. Host Ludwig Lin, MD, is joined by Sergio L. Zanotti-Cavazzoni, MD, FCCM, to explore the dynamics of generational differences in critical care. Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni is chief medical officer for Sound Physicians in Tacoma, Washington, USA.

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Transcript:

Dr. Lin: Hello and welcome to the Society of Critical Care Medicine Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Ludwig Lin. Today, I’m joined by Dr. Sergio Zanotti-Cavazzoni, MD, FCCM, to discuss generational differences in medical practice. This is a follow-up to the Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (LEAD) Committee session from the 2023 Critical Care Congress LEAD precourse titled Generational Differences in Practice and Learning.

Dr. Zanotti will elaborate on the lecture he did about generational differences between practitioners and learners and their goals in life and work. Dr. Sergio Zanotti is a Gen X practicing intensivist out of Houston, Texas. Dr. Zanotti is also the chief medical officer of Sound Critical Care and the host of Critical Matters, a podcast that covers a wide range of topics related to the practice of critical care medicine. Welcome, Dr. Zanotti. Thank you for being here. Do you have any disclosures to report?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: First of all, thank you so much, Dr. Lin, for having me on the podcast, and to the Society of Critical Care Medicine for the opportunity. With regard to financial disclosures, I do have to disclose that I financially support a Millennial and a Gen X. That’s the only disclosure I have for today.

Dr. Lin: That sounds like a pretty important one for this topic. You and I were talking before we started this chat and you reminded me that we should paraphrase quickly what this lecture was at the Critical Care Congress. Let’s just start out with some definitions. Who exactly are these different generations? What are their styles and how do they wind up approaching things like their jobs and work-life balance?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Absolutely. The genesis of this original talk was the recognition from the LEAD Committee at SCCM that in today’s workplace in our ICUs, not only are we exposed to a set of different generations among our colleagues in our ICU, different disciplines on our team, but also throughout our work experience, we really interact with people who have a different experience in life, and that might define how they learn and what they look for in their jobs. Understanding these differences probably does give us a better awareness of how we can be better colleagues, better leaders in our ICU.

I think, as a starting point, we could say that generations are defined by two main factors. First is a time period of when people are born or grow up, and the second is world events or local events that shape their worldview as a group. Today, in the ICU or in our workforce, we probably are, in one way or another, exposed to five generations. The first generation is Traditionalists; these would be people who are age 78 or older, born in 1928 to 1944. There might be a lot of these who have retired from medicine, but we might still be exposed to them in our workplace in different ways or in patients or patient families. Understanding that generation, I think, is still very important.

There are Baby Boomers, who are age 57 to 77. They were born between 1945 and 1965. This is obviously a workforce segment that with COVID probably has increased in retiring from our workforce but still might be present on our teams. Generation X, as you mentioned, this is my generation, age 42 to 56, born between 1966 and 1980. Then we have the famous Millennials, who are aged 26 to 41, and they are now the largest generation in the workforce. I think it’s important to recognize that. They were born between 1981 and 1996, as I mentioned.

Finally, the newest generation is Generation Z. These are people aged 12 to 25, so probably not a lot of physicians or healthcare professionals of that age, but we are seeing some of them start to appear in our ICUs. They were born between 1996 and 2010, and they have a very different life experience in terms of how they think about work and how their worldview is shaped.

Just a couple of general comments, Dr. Lin, in terms of the generations. If you think about the Traditionalists, their formative experiences included probably World War II, rationing, rock and roll, fixed gender roles. The signature product of that generation is the car. Their attitude toward technology is largely disengaged and their aspiration growing up was home ownership. Baby Boomers experienced the Cold War, the moon landing, Woodstock Festival. Their signature product was the explosion of television. They’re early information technology adapters. Their aspiration was job security, and it’s something that we see in how they deal with jobs.

Gen X was exposed to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. The first PCs appeared during this generation. If we’re going to keep the music theme, Live Aid was a big concert that a lot of Gen X grew up with. The signature product is the PC; that was really what defined this generation. They’re digital immigrants. They have experienced in their professional life an enormous transformation of technology. A lot of them are now trying to find work-life balance. Then you have the Millennials who are defined by 9/11, social media, reality TV. Their signature product is probably the smartphone. They’re digital natives. From where they can remember, they’re exposed to screens and they look for freedom and flexibility.

Now we have a new generation that’s coming up through the workforce, Gen Z, who really were shaped by the economic crisis of 2008, global warming, COVID-19, which impacted them as they were looking for their first jobs, maybe getting into college. They experienced COVID in a very different way than maybe my generation did. Their signature product is still to be defined, perhaps it’s going to be virtual reality. These are technoholics, right? They live through technology every day, and they’re looking for security and stability in their job based on what they’ve experienced. This is just, I think, very broad strokes, setting the tables of what these generations represent.

Dr. Lin: That is a great summary of the different generations. Maybe the next topic that we can cover is how they all interact in the healthcare workspace.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Absolutely. I think that we can start maybe with understanding how they learn, because how they get to the workplace is going to be a little bit different. When you think of learning differences, our ICUs are going to be more Baby Boomers to some Gen Zs, right? The majority are going to be Generation X and Millennials. Baby Boomers love face-to-face learning, verbal instruction. They are the ones who like a hard copy of reading material, right? They like the book, they want the printout. You send them something digitally, they’ll print it out so they can read it. They really respond well to question-and-answer sessions where you’re trying to develop a new program, make changes in your ICU. That’s the way they were brought up.

Gen X are more about active engagement. They do like and respond very well to interactive social learning. A lot of us in Gen X grew up by going to conferences, right? We would look forward to going to professional conferences; that was an important aspect of how we continue our ongoing learning. We enjoy open discussion and the teach-back method. You can see a small evolution now. Then you have the Millennials, who use technology-based learning. They’re the ones who, instead of reading books, have all these PowerPoint slides. They look at interactive apps, websites, they learn a lot through YouTube. It’s very technology-based learning and that’s what they grew up with.

Now with Gen Z, it’s further technology-based learning, but it seems like it has to be in even smaller increments, right? They love digital infographics and interactive apps, and maybe YouTube is not what they follow, it’s TikTok, which is even shorter. I think that these are ways that they get content, not only medical content but just general content. As we try to reach these different generations with professional education or with ongoing medical education, I think it’s important to recognize that you have to meet people where they interact the most.

Dr. Lin: Right. I can totally see that. It sounds like, as the generations get younger and younger, the attention span is shorter and shorter, people move on to new bits of information more quickly. Things are in snippets like TikTok. I don’t know about you, but I feel like people in critical care have this ability to multitask and to switch attention to different things rapidly anyway. Does this particular feature about each succeeding generation manifest less in the ICU, or are there other ways where it actually matters even more?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: It’s a great question. I think the evidence is still being created in terms of what’s the best way to learn. I think that the generational differences are more dictated not by how they learn the best but what they’ve been exposed to and what they’re used to. I believe that, in the ICU, there are certain things that we know require a deep work type of approach. Complex ideas can’t be learned in tidbits. At one point, you have to focus and try to digest something that’s complicated.

When you’re dealing with a very sick patient, you can’t be multitasking, you have to deal with that patient. I think that forces people to be a little bit more focused. But I do believe that distraction is a problem for all of us and that, even though people believe that they can multitask, every time you change activities, there’s a degradation in the level of engagement you have with the activity that you’re starting or finishing. Depending on what you’re doing, sometimes focusing a little bit more is very important. That is a superpower that I think all of us have to train ourselves on.

On the other hand, I do believe that we often focus too much on the medium and forget that ultimately content is king. If you can engage somebody, the medium becomes secondary because the content is engaging, right? If I really am fascinated by a topic and I’m used to watching videos, a good engaging book on that topic would still probably captivate me. I think that’s where we have to focus as educators is making sure that we have the right content. That is what they need. Then try to figure out, okay, what are the different channels through which we can disseminate this content?

Dr. Lin: I love that. That is such a great piece of insight. It sounds like what you’re saying is the most important thing is to get that learner, whatever generation they’re from, to be engaged and then figure out what medium to communicate the information within.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: I think so. I think that you first define the content, but I think another way of thinking about it is that, for example, this particular topic of generational differences, right? If we really wanted to be successful in getting this message out to our membership and to our audience, which has diverse generations, we would repackage or rechannel the same content through different mediums. We did an in-person conference at Congress. It was recorded, so some people may see the video later.

We’re doing a podcast today; that might be another medium that appeals to people who like to learn when they’re jogging or when they’re commuting, right? There probably is an opportunity to do some infographics that could be distributed through other social media venues. I think it’s a way of really maximizing how we scale and amplify and socialize a given idea or content. That’s where I think understanding these differences and how you reach different people is going to be very important.

Dr. Lin: Thank you for that. How do you think their generational differences impact the way healthcare professionals wind up communicating with each other in this professional realm?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: This is actually a critical aspect of any team, right? One of the most important factors of a successful team is how they communicate with each other. When you have a diverse group of people from different generations, you have to understand that one size does not fit all. As a team member or as a leader, you have to understand that what is preferred by some people might not be ideal for others.

Let’s talk about communication preferences. Baby Boomers respond very well to verbal, in-person interaction, so if you were to discuss something with a Baby Boomer, the best way to do it is in an in-person meeting, right? For them, that is in the same room, close the door, and we talk about the topic. When they’re making important decisions, again, face to face is ideal for them, although for financial decisions, they might go online for information, but again, they really respond to the in-person, let’s sit down and talk.

Gen X uses a lot of email. A lot of them got hooked with the BlackBerry, right? The CrackBerry at its point. So email became a big, big part of their professional life, but they also prefer face to face, time permitting. They’re the ones who sometimes will say, well, if you need to talk with me, pick up the phone and call me, right? So a phone call might be what they expect for a patient interaction.

Millennials are much more comfortable with email and text. Where I might, in the past, organize something by calling somebody, they might just do everything by text, and yeah, they like face to face. I think that a text is perfectly fine. You find this also very interesting, Dr. Lin, and just see it in your family, how people say happy birthday, right? Grandmas always want to come and give you a present. Your parents probably want to call you at least, right? But as they get younger, your kids might just put a post on social media and they feel they’ve done it face to face with you, right? How people just communicate what they accept as being the norm is very different.

Finally, Gen Z, they love videocalls, FaceTime. It’s very fascinating because a face-to-face for them might be just a videocall versus a face-to-face for a Baby Boomer is, we’re in the same room and you close the door, right? I think understanding that is very important because Millennials and Gen Z at the workplace might be very engaged with apps like Slack or Microsoft Teams where they’re in constant communication and they feel that that’s almost the equivalent of me knocking on the door of your office and saying, hey, I have a question for you, right?

Recognizing that, I think is important because we might miss people or we might not be able to disseminate all the information we want if we’re not using different channels and recognizing what their preferred channel is.

Dr. Lin: Yes, and a lot of our workplace communication is about patient care. But for example, in a learning institution, part of it comes down to evaluating different people, confirming their performance, and if you don’t communicate the correct way, you might be underselling somebody so I think this is super important.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Absolutely. And I think it plays out in the hospital, like you said, right? For some people, the use of a Tiger Text or some other secure texting device is perfect for communicating. Other generations, including, Gen X, like myself, for important things, we really want a phone call, right? Recognizing that, I think, just enhances our ability to engage with our colleagues and to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Dr. Lin: Let’s talk about the bottom line. How does this affect, for example, the way patients perceive their satisfaction in terms of interacting with the healthcare world?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Absolutely. I think that a good place to maybe start as an example would be something that we perhaps do a little bit less in the ICU, but I think is important for all our patients once they leave, is discharge instructions. We definitely have plenty of Traditionalists and Baby Boomers as patients, and they’re the type of people who want a verbal one-on-one opportunity to ask questions but also might value tremendously if we give them something printed out on paper that they can read later versus a Gen Z, give me a QR code, I’ll just take a snapshot with my phone, and I’ll look at the video later, right? That’s a good way of maybe interacting with them, and that’s what they would expect, right? If you give them a piece of paper, it’s probably in the garbage can on the way out.

Understanding also how they get their information outside of healthcare is going to be very important. But I do also want to emphasize something that I truly believe to be very important, that despite these differences in how generations respond to certain aspects of life and professional work and their worldview, at the essence, people are all the same. In the workplace, they want to be engaged, they want to have purpose, they want to learn, and they want to be seen.

As patients, they want to be heard and they want to feel that we are giving them our utmost attention and that we’re listening. Regardless of the generation, I think that focusing on those basic aspects at work or with our patients is probably the best way to move the needle in the right direction in terms of their experience.

Dr. Lin: I love that. That makes it really simple. Go back to the basics. Let me ask you about a couple of other things that are impacted by these generational differences. What happens to different generations’ expectations of their career and their job satisfaction? Do you see differences in their sense of fulfillment or satisfaction from their job? And does that affect their career longevity?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: That’s a great question. I’ll answer the last question first. The longevity, I’m not sure yet because obviously for the younger generations, we don’t have the data, right? But I do think that there are work-related differences that are generational that do impact how people view what’s happening. For example, Baby Boomers, their attitude toward their career is very organizational. Careers are defined by the employers and they are very goal oriented. They’re hardworking, likely to take risks for goals. They really, I think, thrive when there’s an established hierarchy of authority and responsibility. They focus on relationships and results, right? Baby Boomers value loyalty as well as Traditionalists. They’re the ones who might be at a place for their whole career, right? If you look at people who are Baby Boomers or older Traditionalists, they might have been there for the last 30 years and they really value that loyalty.

That is slowly changing with younger generations. I think it does have an impact on how we think about recruitment, how we think about our teams. Gen X, for example, are much more loyal to the profession, not the employer itself, and they’re really about efficiency and productivity. They are the first generation that started looking at work-life balance, being more involved with the kids to the point that they organize every activity their kids had when they were coming up, right? Everything was timed, independent, they enjoy personal development, their focus really is about tasks and results, and they thrive in a fast-paced, functional, efficient work environment with access to the leaders.

Millennials were the digital entrepreneurs, right? They work with organizations, not for organizations. They really value meaning and use of creative skills. They’re not afraid to challenge authority. They thrive in a more collaborative, highly creative, diverse, and fun environment. They also thrive on constant feedback and their focus is much more global and networked. We’re starting to see a very different worldview with Millennials.

Gen Zs obviously are starting to enter the workspace, but they are shaped by major events such as COVID, the 2008 financial collapse. They are the ones who are career multitaskers. They’re more likely to have a side hustle. They like mobility. I think that a Gen Z takes a job and they’re not thinking, this is my job for the next 10 years or this is my job for life, it’s just a stepping stone to whatever they’re doing. They might be doing other things at the same time.

On the other hand, in terms of values, they really value authenticity, truth, and connectivity. They’re much more concerned with social justice. All these topics that obviously are very important for us in the workplace, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, become much more relevant to them. They might actually ask about this when they’re interviewing or when they’re looking at jobs. Meaningful programs and social justice areas might be important for them in taking a job, which is not something that Baby Boomers probably thought about, or maybe even Gen X.

I think that these differences are shaping the workplace, what we offer, what’s important for them. One of the things that we’ve seen is, post-COVID, a lot of younger colleagues have really tried to balance their work-life and have a lot more flexibility and a lot more autonomy in when they work and when they don’t work. That might have an impact on people who are willing to take leadership positions maybe. As opposed to Baby Boomers, the goal was to get a leadership position. The goal was always to get the next promotion. I think that we’re finding that what’s most important for different generations might be changing.

Understanding that, I think, is very important at the individual level, right? I think we want to meet people where they are and make sure that we’re providing what’s important for them, but also the right environment for them to develop and grow from a professional standpoint, which might mean something different for a Gen Z versus a Gen X.

Dr. Lin: Yes, that is extremely illuminating. I wanted to follow up on Gen Z. You mentioned that, because of the times they grew up in, financial uncertainty, COVID, they are looking for stability. At the same time, it also totally makes sense that they are more flexible in terms of what they expect out of their jobs and their career arcs. How does that search for stability reconcile with the generational philosophy of being flexible and picking and choosing and creating the best possible mixture?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: It’s a great question. I think that we’ll contrast Gen Z versus Baby Boomers. Sometimes when you go to the extremes, it’s easier to make the contrasting comparison, right? Stability for a Baby Boomer means that I have a good job at University X, Hospital X, and I’m going to retire here. That’s stability, that my job doesn’t change. I maybe get promoted, but I’m at the same place for 30 years. Stability for Gen Z is, I have options. I’m working at Hospital X, but I also have a side gig with YouTube where I have my channel where I do learning and I have all these subscribers. At the same time, I do a couple of shifts at Hospital Y, just in case things don’t work out at Hospital X. They really are much more flexible, and for them, stability is having different options.

Medicine might be a little bit green yet with Gen Zs, because unless you’re really gifted, most people, for example, are not working in an ICU at age 25, right? We see them as students, maybe some young nurses. We still don’t have enough info as a track record, but based on what we’re seeing and what’s been written, I think that Gen Zs are younger Millennials, which are closer to Gen Zs. It’s not like it’s a dichotomy, you’re a Millennial or a Gen Z, because there’s some overlap. They’re more likely to be people who change careers or do different things within healthcare.

A Baby Boomer, in general, the majority of physicians who are Traditionals or Baby Boomers, for example, or who are nurses probably did that for their whole professional career versus, I think that stability for Gen Z is about options, knowing that you’re flexible and you can do different things.

Dr. Lin: Thank you for that. Now, you are a physician leader. You are the CMO of Sound Critical Care. How do these different generations impact you as a physician group leader who is trying to wrangle these various professionals as a cohesive working group?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: The first thing I would say is that there are tremendous benefits to diversity in general, of all types, but today we’re talking specifically about age diversity in the workplace. I think that the more generations you have on your team, you have a diversity of skills. You have the ability to open the mind of different people by seeing how people who are from a different generation work at the bedside.

It provides an opportunity for mutual mentorship. I’ll give you an example. When I started the podcast, a Millennial mentee of mine got me started. I had helped them with their career and they helped me with all the technical part of getting the podcast started, so it offers tremendous opportunities for mutual mentorship. Maybe a Baby Boomer can teach a Millennial a little bit more about financial responsibility and how to save for retirement, how to be smart about your money, and the Millennial can help them engage with technology. It gives you a great opportunity for mutual mentorship. It also improves decision-making when we’re building new programs, and I think ultimately it’s a competitive advantage for any team that has diversity.

What I would say is, the way it’s impacted me the most as a clinical leader, but also as a team member, is that it has opened my mind to look a little bit deeper into why people behave the way they behave, and to maybe appreciate that not all the differences are necessarily negative. One of the things that’s fascinating is that generational tension is not new. There is a quote in a Babylonian clay tablet from 1000 BCE that I’ll read to you because I think it’s fascinating. It says, Today’s youth is rotten, evil, godless, and lazy. It will never be what youth used to be, and it will never be able to preserve our culture. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Dr. Lin: Yeah, that’s quite entertaining.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: But I think that ultimately it helps inform your emotional intelligence, right? Being aware of what drives, motivates, annoys, and disengages other people is very important. I’m a big believer that we spend too much time at work, at school, focusing on what people are not so good at, but that only gets you to being mediocre. I believe that if we focus on what people are really good at or their strengths, we get true engagement and success. If you know what really drives a Gen Z and you put them on the right committees, you engage them in the right way, they’re much more likely to flourish than if you make them do things that don’t really speak to them. The same is true for other generations, right?

Dr. Lin: Yeah. I like that. Well, let’s make it a little bit more concrete. For example, I feel like one of the elements in critical care that’s occurred very rapidly recently is tele-ICUs. Have you noticed any differences in the practice patterns of your physicians who want to practice in an e-ICU environment versus not?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that what I would say is that right now, for simple reasons, probably the vast majority, if not all, tele-intensivists are Millennials. They are digital natives, so they grew up with technology. They feel very comfortable interacting with patients through technology, having like a thousand screens. They’re very efficient at it and they also value the ability to work maybe from home or the ability to not have to commute versus, for Baby Boomers, it would be much more challenging. It also is not the way they prefer to communicate with patients. It doesn’t fit their idea of work, which is going to the hospital.

I think that’s a very interesting difference, right? I think that, when I think of my super-engaged tele-intensivists, they’re all Millennials, for whatever reason. Now, Gen Z, I can’t really speak about because, like I said, that’s an upcoming generation so I don’t have a lot of physicians, I don’t think I have any physicians, that actually are Gen Z. Twenty-five is the upper limit of Gen Z. We have Gen Z students, we have maybe Gen Z young nurses, but that’s still, I think, more to come out. But I do think that the concept of work, the way we communicate with people, is very interesting.

I had a recent experience with one of my young nieces, it was her birthday, and she told my wife that, oh yeah, I already spoke with Uncle Sergio, and she said, you called her? No, I just texted her but in her mind that’s speaking, right? She spoke with me, right? I think the same applies to how we interact with patients. For a lot of Millennials who enjoy telemedicine, it’s no different. They’re taking care of the patient in their mind, and there’s no difference. For a Gen X or maybe a Baby Boomer, it’s different. What they always try to replicate is their analog experience to the digital. Even with EMRs, you saw that problem. You have to think about it a little bit differently, right? And I think that’s a lot harder.

Dr. Lin: Thank you for that. Okay, I have one last question for you. I’m interested to know how this has impacted your work experience. Have you had to expand the way you solicit feedback, both about yourself as well as the group?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Yes. I think that it’s a work in progress because I do believe that it’s not only fitting the communication or the medium, let’s call it, to the receiver but also making sure that’s the best fit for the topic that needs to be discussed, and that I think is a work in progress. It’s a learning experience. I do believe that, regardless of generations, there are some topics that are better discussed in a closed room. And there are some topics that don’t need that closed room and we can just discuss on a WhatsApp chat, on Slack, on whatever people use, but I think finding that difference is very important.

But also what I find is that when you want to reach people with information that you think is important for them, using different channels so that you can hit the different places where these generations live is very important. That is something that we’re always very conscious about and trying to improve, but absolutely it has an impact.

Dr. Lin: It sounds like that’s definitely a way that you’ve had to grow, is to learn to accept all those different technologies.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: Absolutely. And I think that, again, think about what we talked about at the beginning was that a generation is defined by a time period and world events. So, 2019, Congress was always in person. Maybe there were some videos later. COVID comes, and now all of a sudden, a Zoom meeting, a GoToMeeting, right? A virtual presence. It has been normalized. That is what Gen Z grew up with. That’s the only thing they know. Right? That’s why they gravitate to that. Also, at my level, as a leader, what in the past would require maybe a trip for a one-hour meeting, today is perfectly acceptable to be done via videoconference.

These are changes that I think are dictated more by world events. What marks the generation is that they were at a critical point in their growing up during that world event, right? If COVID hit you when you were already a practicing intensivist, it had a very different impact, definitely has left very deep marks in all of us professionally, but that’s very different if you were a first-year medical student and all of a sudden the first two years of your medical school you’re doing from your bedroom, right? I think that that’s how these generations eventually evolve in terms of those differences.

Dr. Lin: I also wanted to ask you if you have any additional words of wisdom that we didn’t get to during this conversation.

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: I don’t know about words of wisdom, but what I try to do, and I think is very hard, but I’m convinced the more I explore these topics, and I’m really interested as a clinical leader of a large group in obviously finding ways to engage clinicians because I think that engaged clinicians are less likely to be burnt out, which is obviously a big problem.

I do think that having awareness of these differences and these stereotypes is very useful but ultimately what really makes a difference is connecting with each individual at a very personal level and understanding what their strengths are and what their goals are and what motivates them. Most people will find motivation from purpose, from mastery, which is learning, and from autonomy. Just being able to define what that looks like for each individual in your team is ultimately, I think, the best way to create a team that thrives.

Dr. Lin: Yes. That sounds like a great goal at the end of all of this. Learning is interesting but at the same time it leads to a better team and optimal patient care. Thank you so much, Sergio. Anything else that we should talk about?

Dr. Zanotti-Cavazzoni: I’ll put a shameless plug for LEAD as part of the committee. This is a group of your colleagues in the Society of Critical Care Medicine who are trying to create content that goes beyond the purely clinical but that we think will help you lead, empower yourself and your teams, and develop yourself professionally to have a more fulfilling career.

Dr. Lin: Sounds great. Well, this then will conclude this episode of the Society of Critical Care Medicine Podcast. I would like to thank Dr. Sergio Zanotti for taking the time to enlighten us and inspire us with this discussion of the different generations and how we can all communicate with each other more effectively. If you’re listening on your favorite podcast app and you like what you heard, consider rating and leaving a review for the Society of Critical Care Medicine Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Ludwig Lin. Thank you.

The information discussed in this podcast was provided by the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (LEAD) Committee. Find other professional development topics and more in the SCCM Resource Library.

Ludwig H. Lin, MD, is an intensivist and anesthesiologist at Sutter Hospitals in Northern California and a consulting professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he teaches a seminar on the psychosocial and economic ramifications of critical illness.

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