Nita Maddox's Installation Speech

June 12, 2006

2006 AMA Alliance Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates
Drake Hotel, Chicago

Nita Maddox
President
American Medical Association Alliance

My friends. It is a privilege and the honor of a lifetime to serve as your president. But I have to tell you the truth. It is also a bear of a challenge. Especially now, when our membership numbers seem to be following the glide path of a rock.

Outsiders have looked at our situation and they’ve told us:

• Your membership seems to be dividing more and more into leaders and non-leaders.

• The only form of participation for many of your members is to support the Alliance only by, “paying their dues.”

• Members at the local level have no identification with the total organization or its activities.

• Many are apathetic.

• Many are afraid of being asked to do something.

• Many join and drift away for want of friendship or a job to do.

• Many are frightened by the numerous changes in medicine and wonder if their spouses can keep up.

• Many are frightened that their spouses will be sued and no longer able to do what they want to do most, just treat patients.

• Some just want to hide their heads in the sand and hope it all goes away!

What a dismal analysis. And yet – what a magnificent opportunity for those of us in this room. Because – when the ship begins to sink – what do the surviving crewmembers tell us saved them and their vessel?

Well, for one thing, the true leaders took the helm. There was no option about participating. Everyone pitched unnecessary cargo over the side. Everyone bailed out the boat. Everyone got active.

When it is a matter of life or death, people get serious. And so, today, I ask you to get serious with me.

Let me begin with a story about my parents. They were never written up in Who’s Who, but they are my heroes and my example. Mom and Dad have always been hard-working, family-oriented folks whose focus was not on themselves but on others. Life was never easy for either of them growing up in Alabama. 

My father’s Dad died when Daddy was just 18 – and he took it upon himself to help support his mother, his grandmother and himself. He served time in the military, got a job working for the government  and later became a rural mail carrier.

Mom was one of 15 children, and she attended college and became a teacher before marrying my Father and having six children. Five boys and myself. Their work ethic has always been an inspiration to all of us.

Dad was a strong man. A hard-working man. Always working at least two jobs at once, plus volunteering to serve in our community helping with summer baseball leagues and as President of our high school band boosters.

Mom taught kindergarten in the basement of our house and served as a leader in the children’s activities at our church and in the Philos Study Club, a local service organization, which she still belongs to today.

They were a couple that truly epitomized the model of a servant leader. They were always looking for ways to support others who were in need of their time and abilities. Without their willingness to help me care for our four children, I would not have been able to travel to Chicago and become involved at the national level. This thread of giving and hospitality has continued throughout their 54 years of marriage.
    
When I read the management consultant book James Hunter wrote on the servant leader, I immediately thought of my parents.

Hunter says the really successful leaders – in business, government, education and the arts –Truly successful leaders take themselves completely out of the equation. True leadership is about character. He says management is what we do. But leadership is who we are. What our character is made of.

He quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson as saying: Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying.

Did you hear that? Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

As a child and to this day I have seen my parents respond to the needs of others, not just talking about it. 

Remember the key letters in the word "character" are the fifth, sixth and seventh letters – A – C – T – ACT.

James Hunter opened my eyes to the same principles he’s opened eyes to at organizations as diverse as Proctor and Gamble, American Express, Nestle and the United States Air Force.

The principles he talks about can help us now, I believe, as we work to unlock the character and potential of the Alliance.

As many of you know – We have been working to develop a hard-nose strategy for the future. We’re sharing with you the goals and objectives that are focused not inwardly but outwardly. Our priority is service to others.

Servant leadership – within the Alliance and within the larger communities in which we live.

Our goals and objectives assume we will be so busy serving others that new members will want to come alongside and help us.Our goals and objectives build on the successes of the past – By serving those in need – By educating ourselves and staying engaged so that we are capable in assisting our spouses in their battles – By being a meaningful force for good in our communities –

When I look at those goals and objectives, it occurs to me that some in this room may balk at them. Some may want to return to the good old days. To the days of white gloves, tea and cookies. To the days when – we are told – the Auxiliary was a fine, fashionable, fun organization whose main job was to dress well, meet, greet and eat.

Well, folks, those days are long gone – if they ever existed at all. We have taken off our gloves, rolled up our sleeves, put away the china, forgotten to polish the silver and sometimes even forgotten to pick up the kids!

Our job now is to reshape the shape we’re in. To grow from our strengths. To look for ways to develop new strengths – Built on the concept not of self at the center, but as us as servant leaders.

I guess,  if you boil down our strategy,  it comes out as four thoughts:

First, necessity. Recognize we just can’t just do what we’ve always done or the results will be exactly what they’ve always been.

Necessity is truly the mother of invention – and necessity is upon us.

The Alliance faces the very same challenges the rest of society has faced and is facing.

Since the 1960s – the United States has experienced an almost total revolution in social, economic, political and behavioral characteristics.

The old ways – once challenges – either changed or decayed.

The earlier years saw the rise of massive institutions – each of which has been brought low.

Last spring, Rebecca, our youngest child, and I visited the classic example, The Berlin Wall. Who would have ever believed that we would live to see that symbolic wall being broken down and today lying in crumbles? 

Another example is the rate at which companies left the Fortune 500 list between 1970 and 1990. That rate quadrupled.

In order to marry my husband in 1979, I had to change careers so I could support us. I became a sales representative for the Xerox Corporation. At that time they were one of the greatest companies in America. Where are they today? Certainly not on the Fortune 500 list.
 
A third is what has happened to the telecommunications industry. Was it just 13 years ago that I got my first cell phone? Do you remember those first huge phones? Can you believe how technology has changed since we were children? How many years ago did you buy your first computer? Technology has completely changed how we communicate, our transportation, our homes and our how we work!

But what about our organization? We changed our name from Auxiliary to Alliance. We all recognize and understand that our world has drastically changed all around us, but have we been bold enough to make the necessary changes to keep our organization relevant?

Have we kept up? Look at the numbers. —Locally and nationally. Look at the needs – locally and nationally. Tell me what you find.

I see an institution under attack – An institution that is mentality paralyzed to be innovative. I see an institution under-utilizing its greatest resources; it’s intelligent and talented members. I see an institution under-appreciated – sometimes for good reason. I see an institution looking inward instead of outward – too obsessed with self while a world in need waits for us to change. I see an institution in need.

And that’s my first principle – necessity.

Second, the antidote to decline and decay – innovation.

Now is the time to be bold, to look for the new and the different; To throw out the old; To open the windows and doors and let the fresh winds of change blow through the place.

British scientist and author, Arthur C. Clarke, famously observed that the effects of innovation are typically overrated in the short run and underestimated in the long run. I suspect the same is true with us.

Many – maybe me included – see innovation – imagination – originality and remodeling – As the beginning and end of all success. Well, they certainly won’t be if we don’t try them.

More importantly, what option do we have? What is the alternative to innovation?

Staying with the old rules, the same way of conducting business, not being willing to look for ways to adapt our programming to meet the needs of all of our potential members, the old fears and favorites that got us where we are?

Well, I for one, look elsewhere.

To James Hunter – as I noted, but we all have to understand there is a huge warning label when you decide to change.

It says: Warning: Change can be hazardous to your comfort zone.

Wherever you look at the history of innovation and change, you find messy, irrational, disruptive times. Whether it’s the advent of the railroad, the automobile, the computer, the Internet or I-Pods – change involves risk. And risk-taking can be uncomfortable and messy indeed.

But, again I ask: What is the alternative? Just one thing: Continued decline, decay and deterioration of a once very proud organization.

Third, remember we are a team. We join together – We train together –We work together – We have fun together and we stick together.

My dear friend, Alma Rozeman, from Shreveport, Louisiana, is here  today sticking with me.  Our spouses, Philip and Phil, trained together 26 years ago in Charleston, South Carolina. Philip and I used to go yard selling together every Saturday morning while Alma and Phil worked. 

We have stuck together through thick and thin, days of poverty and wealth, because we are family, the medical family, and who can understand us better than each other? This is teamwork, through and through.

A few months ago, world-famous management guru Peter Drucker died. Did you know that in his lifetime, he literally invented the management consulting profession? One of his pet mandates was that successful organizations were just,……… successful teams? Nothing fancier than that.

Listen to what he wrote: “Teamwork is neither good nor desirable. It is a fact." “Wherever people work together or play together, they do so as a team.” Pretty obvious, I would say.

But listen to what he says next: “Which team to use for what purpose,” he says, “is a crucial, difficult and a risky decision that is even harder to unmake.”

Jim Collins, the author of, “ Good to Great”, says it another way.

“Great leaders do not begin by setting a new vision and strategy. They first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and then they figured out where to drive the bus. “

Ladies and gentlemen, we are making crucial, difficult and risky decisions about which teams to use – to create – to leverage our future off of.

But team spirit, unity of purpose, teamwork – in short – is what gives the successful an edge over the not so successful.

The individual is ultra-important.  Our individual counties and states. We are a nation built on respect for the individual – individual liberty and individual responsibility. But we are not a nation built on ego.

At one time or another we all have been unlucky enough to have leaders centered on themselves – you’ve seen the results.

But a group of individuals – called to a high purpose – makes history. A group becomes a team when each member is self-assured enough to put their egos aside. A group becomes a team when each is servant-leader enough to seek first to praise the skills of others. A group becomes a team when a feeling of one-ness replaces individual self-centeredness. A group becomes a team when each player remembers it’s a symphony,….. not a solo performance.

Always remember, no matter how elegant the wing,…………… a one-winged bird can’t fly.

And so – identifying the need – identifying the innovation and imagination needed – and putting together a team – we have to energize those three letters in the middle of the word “character.”
 
We have to act. We can plan carefully. And we should. We can discuss thoroughly. And we should.

But – when the boat’s taking on water folks – planning and discussion are a lot less important than taking action………. tossing and bailing needless cargo overboard. And that’s what we should be doing. Acting.

Why?  Because, there are nearly 300 million Americans out there – waiting for us. There are 65 million uninsured Americans out there – waiting for us. There are parents out there waiting to be taught by us. There are millions of kids in thousands of schools – waiting to hear  from us.

We can no longer afford the luxury of inward looking, choosing not to support each other. We can no longer afford the luxury of inactivity, inconsideration and  immobility.

One man – who spent nearly 50 years studying the concept of success – came up with his definition, which I think we should consider.

His name is Earl Nightingale – and he had two enormously successful careers –One as a radio broadcaster and commentator – And the other as a very successful management consultant and motivational speaker.

Here’s how he came to define the word “success.” He said success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile objective. Let me repeat that. Success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile objective.

Well, our objective is worthwhile – serving America. You and I will never ever realize THAT success unless and until we ACT.

So there you have it. N-Necessity. I-Innovation. T-Teamwork. A-Action. N. I. T. A. Did you get it? N.I.T.A Corny jokes aside – I think those four principles deserve your attention. After all – It’s not all about Nita. It’s all about N.I.T.A. It’s all about Necessity, Innovation, Teamwork and Action. It’s all about getting the AMA Alliance out of the ditch and back on the road to success.

So – right off the bat – let me try to set an easy example for you – An example of taking self out of the equation and focusing on our communities. It’s not about Nita – but N.I.T.A. – and us, your leaders on the national level doing whatever we can in order to provide service to help educate you and to support your local activities and programs.

I promise you…. we will do everything in our power to help you this next year. Because helping you….. helps those who need help the most.

A year from now – as I look out at this audience – I truly expect that it will be a different audience – a larger audience – That each of you will be here – joined by younger members, new members, male and female, native –born and foreign-born – That chairs that now sit empty – Will be brought in and crammed in –To make room for all the growth of the AMA Alliance.

That we will have to find a new, larger meeting place. I’m thinking – United Center or Soldier Field – to appeal to all of our male members, because the Alliance is so big – so vibrant – so exciting.

And we can do it if you’ll just remember three things: Go out and make a new friend – find a new potential member right away. Then, make that member feel like they are a part of a family, needed and wanted.

You can do that by inviting them to attend a meeting with you, by telling them about opportunities to build their skills like LDC and State meetings, by training them and equipping them, by giving them the chance to make a difference in their community, by making them feel valued, or by serving them.

Can we do it? Do we have a choice? Can we change?

I for one know we can, I – for one – can’t wait to serve you – to help you – to watch you explode in service to others, to each other, to your communities, to your spouses and – ultimately – to our great nation.

I – for one – can’t sleep some nights thinking of all those who need  us– who need the support that only we can provide, who need the education that only we know to teach, who need to hear the message that only the Alliance can give – and who will see in the days to come the greatest collaboration in the history of the AMA Alliance.

It is such an honor and privilege to serve as your servant leader.

Thank you.