Appendix

THE PROCESS: ROUNDTABLES + SALON-STYLE CONVERSATIONS  

The following values and principles guided roundtable agenda formation, facilitation, and participation:  

Adaptivity  

• Values: Hope 
• Principle: Maintain a forward-looking and hopeful outlook in all discussions, emphasizing the  potential for positive change. Vision possibility.  

Constructive Collaboration  

• Values: Relationships, Service 
• Principle: Foster strong, trusting relationships, encourage collaborative thinking and shared  responsibility with regard to addressing the future of healthcare workforce development.  

Cultivate Collective Genius  

• Value: Excellence 
• Principle: Strive for the highest quality in all aspects of the roundtable.  

Engagement  

• Values: Compassion, Empowerment, Teamwork 
• Principle: An environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute, ensuring  a variety of perspectives are sought and respected.  

Strategic Networking  

• Values: Relationships, Teamwork 
• Principle: Leverage strategic networking opportunities to strengthen professional connections and foster ongoing collaboration beyond the roundtable.  

Teamwork  

• Value: Teamwork 
• Principle: Embrace different talents and backgrounds, recognizing and integrating varied  expertise and experiences to enrich the roundtable’s outcomes.  

The roundtable agenda featured community building and grounding experiences to establish an environment for optimal creative thinking.  

Roundtable Agenda  

Welcome 

Roundtable Welcome + Flow  

The Ritual  

Honoring Legacy  

Considering the healthcare professionals who paved the way for us all. A reflective moment to honor NMF scholars from the 1940s on.  

Roundtables #1 and #2 

Model Conversation  

Roundtable “hosts" frame and set up the conversation, providing context and content, and model the discussion. After the introductory conversation, guests engage in exchanges in smaller roundtable groups based on insights and inquiries generated by the hosts.  

The model conversation inquiry — How can the future workforce—physicians, researchers, and  healthcare professionals—be best prepared to serve the entire population and reach all communities?  

Roundtable Conversations  

Guests determine the focus of their small group conversations. Navigational prompts foster conversation flow as do questions or insights guests have identified in advance and that emerge during context-setting conversation. Participants consider inquiries that address the need to improve and impact the issue(s) at hand. After the first round of conversations, guests continue deliberations with a focus on what needs to be better understood about the systems, structures, and supports required to address the identified issue(s).  

Roundtable Closure  

Closing Ritual — Celebrating the Future  

Guests acknowledge the accomplishments of the gathering and sow “seeds” of inspiration for the future workforce they are helping to cultivate.  

The roundtables are intimate, peer-led spaces that allow participants to engage in rich, meaningful  conversations about issues, concerns, and topics relevant to the gathering's themes. Based on the  principle that all voices are valued, this format encourages a dynamic exchange of ideas and examination of a topic. 

SEEDS: A PROCESS METAPHOR  

During the gathering, through conversations and contemplations, the notion of seeds was used to capture the power of the insights generated metaphorically. Seeds are and represent:  

• Something that can be sown
• Beginnings and endings
• The essence of life
• Hope

Guests were encouraged to engage in conversation and capture their thoughts throughout the roundtable experience. These thoughts, like seeds, will be planted in the fertile soil of NMF's vision and nurtured in research agenda development as NMF endeavors to understand how best to ensure the future of the next generation of the health workforce.