The Stickiest Surprise Thus Far from ASCP #SenioRx18

Today, I had the chance to sit in on several symposia occuring at The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists annual meeting, #SenioRx18 after the opening ceremony. There were reviews on the new Beers List, New Drugs, and a governmental update on Washington DC. They were all awesome - don't get me wrong. I picked up something from each of them. But the 'stickiest' thing I've heard thus far...was about the coyote and the honey badger.

Huh?

Stick with me here.

One of the award winners last evening mentioned that coyotes and honey badgers team up to hunt. Odd, considering they hunt for the same prey. You'd think that they'd keep at a distance from each other since they hunt the same animals in sparse territory. However, the pharmacist brought this story up about them collaborating, so naturally I was curious and Googled it.

Apparently they DO collaborate and hunt together, even though they're after the same prey. Why? Because they have different skills, and when they team up, they get more food! The coyote can outrun a lot of prey. However, the honey badger is slow. But, the honey badger can dig well, and the coyote can't.

They've actually done studies on this partnership and found that they're successful in catching more prey when teaming up, and had a wider field by which to hunt vs. working solo.

I keep thinking back to some of my best partnerships in the past on projects, work, and meetings. And some of the best outcomes happened when I teamed up with people who were not like me. They had different skills than I did and do, and they're strong at things where I'm weak. But, when we had a similar outcome and goals, we teamed up and had better outcomes than if I just rocked it solo.

This story stuck in my head reminds me not only to partner up with friends, it also reminded me to consider partnering up with people not like me too....and maybe even frenemies (?) As long as the goals are the same, even if we're seemingly frenemies, we might just create a better outcome despite our differences. Note as well, that this story really doesn't have anything specifically to do with pharmacy--it's bigger than a profession.

To the pharmacist who told this story - thank you.

___

Erin Albert is in education at ASCP, inter alia.