LAS Themes for 2019

By Loren Deutsch

A few weeks ago I wrote about pushing pause in order to take time and reflect. It was intentional given the new year and provided a bridge from an earlier post I had written about being thankful. When I reflect on the personal experiences I hold dear and the professional ones I am entrusted to support at LAS, I wanted to further explore and communicate them in 2019. These themes include self-reflection and hope, and as I discussed them at LAS we started to use them in the context of our daily conversations and team meetings and felt they were important to the LAS Method.

Over time, the LAS Method has evolved but one aspect has always remained. At the heart of LAS is a philosophy predicated on establishing a trusting relationship with each and every person we help. Therefore, at LAS we begin by listening, in order to understand our students and residents, and how to design an individual plan with them. In fact, years ago I put a Maya Angelou quote in my email signature to reflect the reason listening is so important. The quote reminds me about the impact we can have on others and explains what I believe (more beautifully than my writing can convey), “I’ve learned that people will forget what you’ve said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Now that we are one month into the new year, and some of our day-to-day demands have resumed it seems like the right time to introduce the LAS themes for 2019: reflection, hope, wellbeing, and perseverance.  These themes underscore a personal and professional commitment to relationships, (the foundation of LAS) and inform our evidence-based approach to teaching. I invite you to read about them in our LAS Blogs and give us feedback! We welcome your questions, submissions for blog posts, or simply to engage with us!