How to Attend the ACGME Annual Conference Like A Systems Thinker (Not a Tourist)
Every February, thousands of leaders gather for the ACGME Annual Conference.
There are plenaries, concurrent sessions, poster halls, hallway conversations, and more business cards exchanged than anyone remembers by Monday morning.
And yet, year after year, I hear the same quiet refrain afterward:
“That’s was interesting- but i’m not sure what do do with it.”
That’s the difference between attending as a tourist and attending as a systems thinker.
The Tourist Mindset
The tourist attends the conference looking for answers.
They:
Go to sessions that confirm what they already know
Gravitate toward familiar faces
Take notes they never revisit
Return home inspired, but unchanged
Tourists consume content.
Systems thinkers look for patterns.
The Systems Thinker’s Lens
A systems thinker attends with a different posture:
They are not asking:
”What’s the best session?”
They’re asking:
What themes keep repeating across sessions?
Where do accreditation, culture, and operations quietly intersect?
What problems are multiple institutions trying to solve, but naming differently?
They listen for signals, not soundbites.
Prepare Before You Arrive
Systems thinking start before the conference begins.
Ask yourself:
What are our current pressure points? (survey results, recruitment challenges, faculty engagement, wellness concerns)
Where do we rely too heavily on individuals instead of infrastructure?
What questions are we avoiding internally?
Then choose sessions that challenge your assumptions, not ones that feel comfortable.
Watch the Hallways, Not Just the Podium
Some of the most important data at ACGME doesn’t come from slides.
It comes from:
The offhand comments during Q&A
The quiet “we’re struggling with that too” conversations
The patterns you hear when different institutions describe the same problem in different language
This is where systems reveal themselves.
Translate, Don’t Transplant
One of the biggest post-conference mistakes is trying to replicate what another institution is doing.
Systems thinkers don’t ask:
”How do we copy this?”
They ask:
What problem was that institution actually solving?
What conditions made that solution possible?
What would our version need to look like?
Context matters. Always.
Bring It Home With Intention
Before you leave the conference, identify:
One assumption you’re willing to challenge
One system you want to examine more honestly
One conversation you need to have that you’ve been postponing
Not five initiatives.
Not a strategic overhaul
Just one meaningful shift.
The Real Value of the Conference
The ACGME Annual Conference isn’t abut checking a box or staying current.
It’s about learning how to see your institution more clearly.
When you attend as a systems thinker, the conference doesn’t end when you leave, it changes how you notice patterns, ask questions, and lead long after you return.
And that’s where real improvement begins.
Closing Reflection
You don’t need to attend every session.
You don’t need to have every answer.
But if you leave with sharper questions than you arrived with, you’ve attended the conference exactly the right way.