January Blues in GME: When Good Ideas Meet Resistance
January has a particular energy in graduate medical education.
The calendar resets, but the work does not.
Recruitment continues. Planning for July intensifies. Meetings Stack.
And somewhere in the middle of it all, someone tries to make something better.
A clearer onboarding checklist.
A more coordinated process.
A small innovation meant to reduce confusion or friction.
And suddenly, the pushback arrives.
“That not how we do things here.”
’We’ve always handled it this way.”
”Why are we changing this now?”
Rarely is the resistance about the idea itself.
More often, it’s about timing.
About fatigue.
About change arriving when people already feel stretched thin.
When Innovation Feels Personal
In January, even thoughtful improvements can feel like a threat.
Not because people don’t care, but because change can feel like:
a loss of control
an unspoken critique of past efforts
or one more thing to manage when capacity is already low
In medical education, systems hold memory.
They remember the initiatives that came and went.
Processes that promised improvement but delivered more work.
Feedback that never seemed to leave anywhere.
So when someone suggests dong things differently, even with the best intentions. What surfaces is not always opposition, but protection.
What January is Actually Asking of Leaders
January doesn’t need bold transformations.
It asks for discernment.
For leaders, this season is less about pushing harder and more about:
explaining the why before the what
inviting collaboration instead of compliance
acknowledging the weight people are already carrying
Sometimes leadership looks like momentum.
Other times, it looks like steadiness.
Holding a vision while allowing others time to meet it.
Small Changes Still Matter
Not every innovation needs consensus to be meaningful.
Some of the most impactful changes in GME are quiet:
one process clarified
one handoff simplified
one assumption removed
These are not takeovers.
They are acts of care.
And January, despite its heaviness, is often the moment when these small shifts can begin, if we allow ourselves to move with intention rather than urgency.
Closing Reflection
January doesn’t always feel hopeful.
Sometimes it feels resistant.
Slow.
Heavy.
But it can still be honest.
And in medical education, honesty about systems, capacity and change, is often where real progress starts.