Last month, I wrote about replenishment and the importance of creating space to restore the energy and perspective our work requires. This month, after spending the past week with colleagues and friends at the ALSN Conference, I am reflecting on another gift this community gives us: discovery through connection.
Every year, as the conference approaches, I feel a familiar sense of anticipation, a kind of buzz and energy that is difficult to describe. Certainly, I look forward to learning something new, to hearing the latest research, and to having my thinking challenged. But even more so, what I look forward to is the people.
There is something special about seeing longtime friends and colleagues, relationships that began through ALSN and have deepened over the years. And there is equal excitement in the new encounters: meeting someone whose work I have followed, discovering a shared interest over coffee, or finding that the person sitting beside me is wrestling with the same question I am. Those seemingly small moments often become the beginning of something much bigger: a new idea, a collaboration, a friendship. Some continue for years, even a lifetime.
Over the past few days, I found myself noticing these moments all around me. A conversation that continued long after a presentation. An expression of joy as two longtime friends discovered each other across the room. Students who were talking with their mentors and discovering new ones.
These moments remind me that discovery does not happen only in our data or in the findings we present. Sometimes, discovery begins by simply being curious about one another.
These moments also remind me that connection is not separate from discovery. Connection is often what makes discovery possible. The challenges facing nursing and healthcare are far too complex for any one researcher, leader, organization, or discipline to address alone. We need one another. We need spaces where evidence meets experience, where ideas can cross boundaries, and where curiosity is welcomed.
As I looked around our ALSN community this past week, I saw those spaces take shape.
That is something I value deeply about ALSN. We are a community of people who study leadership, practice leadership, teach leadership, and develop those who will lead after us. Each of us brings a unique perspective. When those perspectives come together, something new becomes possible.
So, as I reflect on our time together, I am feeling especially grateful. Grateful for the ideas that were shared, certainly, but even more for the people who shared them.
Perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts of gathering in person: we come together to discover something new, and along the way, we discover something in one another; relationships that may shape our work and our lives for years to come.
Together in Leadership,
Heather Nelson-Brantley, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, CNE, FAAN
