Lum on Lessons Learned

Ky Luu:  And that is absolutely amazing.  As someone who formally worked within the U.S. federal government, I think it is an amazing feat you have all accomplished in a very short period of time.  What would you say now has been the most important lesson learned from the current H1N1 response?

Gary Lum:  Ky, my answer will be a little bit odd to that specific question, but I’d just like to say that the one thing that I’ve gotten out of this activation is the importance of incredibly good people, and we were fortunate to have very good people.  For a public service where traditionally you’ll have people who aren’t necessarily qualified in the technical area that you’re working with, we had a range of people who applied themselves who had not had formal training in this area, but also our government had been wise enough over many years to employ technical experts with good epidemiological, good biological, good microbiological, and good healthcare backgrounds, so that they could prepare particularly for this.  I know it’s a cliché, but good people surrounded by good people will make all the difference, and that’s probably one of the most important things that we had.  And if I was preparing for or planning for something else major, I would want to make sure that within my group set for policy development and also for planning would be to have the right people who could write, who could plan, who could think, and who have experience.  One of the other things that I learned was the importance of bringing people together very regularly.  So I took it upon myself to chair a daily management meeting from the outset, and we still do this, although in the last couple of weeks we’ve been doing it every few days.  And what that does is it brings all of the section and team heads together, it’s not particularly structured, I do an agenda each time, and we sort of stick to it, but really it’s just asking for updates from section heads.  Now part of the problem with that is that it’s not strictly a management meeting, in my mind a strong management meeting should last between fifteen to thirty minutes depending on what is happening, but sometimes these meetings can go on for thirty to forty-five minutes.  And what I do is I allow a couple of things to happen—that is, everybody to have a say, they can let off steam, but they can also let us know if something big is happening that day, and I think that’s really important, because it means then that everybody is part of that management team, understands what is going on for that day, or what may have happened in the previous day.  I think on a larger scale, the one lesson that I’ve learned was that formal planning actually works.  I think that working in a hospital at lower levels, we would always hear about the need for a plan for this, and a plan for that, or working on a scenario for this or that, and you can get a little bit cynical.  But having now experienced an activation of this magnitude, and having experienced working in something this big, if we hadn’t had that original plan it would have been very difficult.  But as important is to know that a plan is not a standard or a requirement, it is merely a guideline, and that flexibility around a plan is really important.  I think if people are wed to a plan as a requirement, and they have to stick to it as writ or scripture, then there’s a problem.  And we, from the outset, maintained in all of our communication, particularly with colleagues and states and territories and also with communication with Ministers’ offices that we had to be flexible.  Sure the plan was good, and we stuck to the plan pretty much most of the time, but of course we then had to go into PROTECT, so that was a big departure.  And throughout this event, what we’ve done is looked at the plan, looked at what it’s telling us, and then thought, stepped back and thought, “Well, is this the right thing to do now?  Is this the right thing for Australians in the coming weeks and months?  And how do we use this plan as a guide, as a structure to be able to work on?”  And I think that planning is really important, but keeping on top of things, keeping ahead of the game, and thinking ahead is really important as well.  And so that’s where you have to have a plan, but you need to be flexible about it.  Some people might listen to this and think, “Well, that’s having a bet each way” or, “It’s not really consistent” and “What’s the use of having something written down if you’re going to depart from it?”  All I can say is having a basic outline, a basic skeleton of something to do, having some meat on those bones, so that should the event occur as planned, it makes it so much easier for you, but just remember—if it’s just a little bit different, think outside that box. 

Ky Luu:  Absolutely, absolutely.  Can I ask you—switching topics here—what are you currently reading?

Gary Lum:  Ky, I from a professional perspective I try to maintain my reading around clinical microbiology, and also my interest in bioterrorism, so journal articles as well as textbooks.  But I have to say, I’m a bit embarrassed because I like science fiction, and so I use that as an escape.  So I’m not sure that Harry Potter books count as science fiction, but I’ve been reading those through again.  And I do enjoy Star Trek, and I read the Star Trek books.  I hope people don’t think I’m a bit weird now, but I think the escapism helps when you’re usually fairly busy, and then you can go and do something or read something that’s light-hearted and entertaining.

Ky Luu:  Excellent.  Finally, what advice would you give to mid- or senior-level professionals who are going to listen to this interview, and who may want to follow in your footsteps?

Gary Lum:  Well, it will be interesting to know if anybody would want to follow in my footsteps Ky.  But I think that there’s been a lot said about evidence-based medicine, about evidence-based professional practice, and all the walks of life, no matter what profession you might be taking.  But the one thing I’ve always taught to students, that I’ve always shared with colleagues, is that I’ll never ignore my instincts.  If you’ve grown up with a habit of observing what’s going on around you, and actively trying to work out what works and what doesn’t work, then I think that you’re ahead of the game.  And if you can position yourself to work with good people above you and below you, then I think you’re mostly there.  Always remember that nothing is impossible, and if you really want something, it’s important to plan, and to take every opportunity.  And if those opportunities don’t come around in the time that you think is right, try to make the opportunities happen.  And it’s not impossible.  You’ve got to put yourself in the right place.  I think also, I like to listen to what everybody says.  I’m usually fairly quiet, and I’ll usually try to only say things when I think it’s going to make a difference.  I’ll try to make decisions based on the experiences that I can trust, so from a trusted colleague, or from past experiences of my own.  So I’ll listen a lot, but I’ll take on all those things that I feel like I can trust.

Ky Luu:  Well that’s great advice, and Dr. Lum, I want to thank you for coming on the Leadership Corner, and for inspiring the next generation of leaders.  Thank you.

Gary Lum:  Thank you very much Ky, I’m sorry for taking too long.

Ky Luu:  This was excellent, this was absolutely wonderful and I know that we will all benefit from this interview.  Thank you for your time.

Gary Lum:  Thank you.