About the speaker

Our speaker today is Professor Clifford Hughes AO.

Clifford is the Chief Executive Officer of the Clinical Excellence Commission, a statutory health corporation established to build capacity and design programmes to promote and support improvement in quality and safety for health services across NSW.

Prior to this position, he was a Cardiothoracic Surgeon for 25 years at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. He has led five medical teams to China and has performed cardiac surgery in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.

Clifford was a Member of the Australian Council on Safety and Quality in Health Care, and holds fellowships in the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians as well as the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

In 1998, Australia recognised his contribution by making him an Officer in the Order of Australia for “service to cardiac surgery, international relations and the community”. Along with this achievement he has  received an Alumni Award from the University of NSW.

It gives me great pleasure to invite Professor Clifford Hughes to deliver the occasional address.

Speech

The Power of One or Two or Three

Introduction and acknowledgments

The Power of One:

Graduations are a time of reflection celebration and challenge today is no exception and I am reminded of the Bryce Courtney novel “The power of one” which was made in to a screen drama in 1992. It tells a story of P.K. a young English boy raised in South Africa, his conflicts, his romantic interests and development. But it does very pointedly address the issue of the power that we each have in our own lives. Each of the graduates here today demonstrate that power. For the last few years they have been working, studying, researching and developing their skills.

Today belongs to you and it is a tribute to the power that each of you have brought to your own lives. Your families and friends, too, are to be congratulated. We all recognise just what you have been able to achieve. Yes, I know there were moments of self-doubt, I know there were times of anxiety and I know that there times when you were probably frantic, depressed or simply were about to give up. But you have overcome - such is the Power of One. So as you move into your postgraduate life take that power with you for is it for good, good for the community and good for you; yourself.

The Power of Two:

Humanity was never meant to be a collection of individuals in isolation. Moving into your chosen careers you will recognise there will be many times when there are two of you, not just you and your ideas. Sometimes the two will travel the same road as partners and other times you will be in conflict with people’s whose view you do not share. I have no doubt that if you are anything like me there will be time when you will get angry at the other person’s “lack of insight”. I grew up with three brothers and a very wise father, a railway man who did not have the opportunity to complete any university education because of the Great Depression, but he taught me many things: - one of those was “Cliff when you argue with the fool make sure he is not doing the same”. You see, we ought to recognise that in the other person’s point of view there are gems and truths. If we ignore those truths or worse, argue against them, then we are foolish, that is, the truth is not in us. But if we adopt them into our argument we grow and gain wisdom ourselves. This was another lesson from my father! So, if we show the power of two, whether it is in a friendship, love, partnerships or whether it is in a conflict we can overcome – it’s the skill to learn to listen that is the Power of Two.

The Power of Three:

It is too soon to stop counting for there have many challenges ahead of you no matter where or what you do in chosen career. When there I was a very young leader involved in youth work a wise old man once showed me a trick: he drew a straight line on a page and put a stick figure on either side representing two people in conflict. Mid-way along the line he drew a vertical and on top of that vertical he drew a much larger figure. Then he drew two lines from each of the first two to the pinnacle of what was now a triangle “you see Cliff when two people are loggerheads they can only see each other from exactly the opposite point of view. But if they look towards a common goal they move steadily towards it. Even the most distant of parties can then come together” I think that’s what my dad was trying to say with his comments.

That person at the peak of the triangle reflects the value of a mediator, a friend, a senior colleague or a wise leader, the third member of the team. To put it in another way and to quote King Solomon (said to be the wisest of the wise) “a cord with three strands is not easily broken”. Just try it yourselves get three pieces of fishing wire and try and break them. It doesn’t take much to overcome the breaking strain. But take the same wire and wrap three of them around each other and then try and break it - it is almost impossible. The point being that if we wish to face the

challenges that life throws at us we must to look to others to help us and not stop at just one or two. In Healthcare we are slowly coming back to the realisation that our team is far better way of treating a patient than any individual surgeon, nurse, physio, dentist or whoever. Together we can accomplish far more for the patient with much more security for ourselves. What’s more, within that three stranded rope our own weaknesses are accommodated with security and safety. Being intertwined each of the strands inevitably provides support and comfort, even though at different times and different places they seem to be going in different directions. It seems to me that Solomon had expressed in the most simple but profound way the true meaning of “the team”.

So graduates, friends, family and dare I say it, Faculty wherever you go, whatever you do appreciate the Power of One, appreciate the challenges and the Power of Two but above all appreciate the Power of Three. And by the way - do not stop counting.

Thank you.