First Impressions are Key

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting a member of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Immunology for the first time.  He came to visit me in my office at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and was impressed by the view from the 12th floor of the building in which we rent space in the Harbor East area of the city.  He was visiting from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  While we had been colleagues (in much different departments) for 7+ years in public health before I changed schools, we had never met.  It actually turned out that our commonalities went much further back--having graduated from the same College at Penn State in 1991.  That was how he started the meeting.

Then, I took my turn.  As an economist, I am not sure if he had any idea of what I brought to the table in terms of understanding the science and the underlying topics that he was about to discuss.  Or that I would have much room on my plate for new activities.

However, I shared with him all sorts of different projects I had worked on.  Pancreatic cysts.  Wegener's granulomatosis--studied by someone in the vasculitis center.  Surgical treatments for dysfunctional uterine bleeding and the different between ovulatory and anovulatory bleeding.  And my eye care work.  And I could speak about some of these with some degree of authority.

After I closed my 5 minutes of "isn't cost effectiveness with any type of condition fun?" I made the comment that I wasn't sure if I had told him more than he had ever wanted to know about my background.

He said, "No."  And he commented that it was actually good that I had worked on a lot of different things that obviously fascinated me and kept my attention.  It suggested to him that I might not shy away from yet another new topic.  He was coming to talk to me about genetically engineered mice.  That was new.  But it was exciting.

It was part of a two day period in which I heard about everything from mice to HPV to worrying about a student's dissertation to admissions issues to our online MBA to accreditation and many other topics. It is part of what I like about my job--so many different aspects constantly shifting.

Sometimes colleagues think I should be more focused.

But I learned (as I have many times before) that sometimes colleagues are looking for those who can be open to new ideas, think about new things, and expand their horizons.  First impressions are key.