Sustaining leadership growth through alumni‐led Learning Circles

Leadership development in academic medicine is offered in a variety of formats. However, the engagement of leadership program graduates in sustaining behaviour change, peer learning or learning communities has not been sufficiently examined in the literature.1 Facing similar challenges, we sought ways to extend the impact of Accelerate, our 12-month interprofessional staff and faculty leadership development program at a US academic medical centre, which prepares participants for supervisory roles. Supervisors nominate participants, or participants self-nominate, to deepen their skills and confidence. Our systematic program evaluation, consisting of session evaluations, work products, graduation reflections, and participant and alumni interviews, revealed two key needs: Participants wanted deeper peer dialogue and mentoring, and alumni wanted continued engagement to apply leadership skills in a learning community. In response, we created Learning Circles (LCs) to connect participants and alumni in an alumni-led, cross-cohort, interprofessional small-group format. Volunteer Accelerate graduates served as Learning Circle Leaders (LCLs), each leading a bi-monthly meeting with three to five participants. Participants served in various roles and departments, fostering interprofessional learning and interdepartmental connections. LCs met six times during the program year, followed by large-group meetings that used structured prompts tied to program content. LCs integrated core psychological needs outlined in self-determination theory (SDT) to promote intrinsic motivation, connection, and learning. During the LC meetings, participants and alumni exercised (1) autonomy by selecting cases most relevant to them, (2) competence using reflection prompts that encouraged participants to apply leadership skills at work and (3) relatedness by maintaining stable, small groups to build psychological safety and connection. Accelerate program directors met with LCLs for group coaching sessions to reflect on progress, address challenges, including attendance and group dynamics, and explore leadership aspirations, barriers, and questions about course content. These meetings created a feedback loop, enhancing the program experience for both alumni and participants. Learning Circles effectively addressed alumni need for leadership development and for building learning communities beyond program completion. Program participants and LCLs valued discussing real challenges with colleagues from across the institution, which broadened perspectives and normalized common struggles, such as leading without formal authority. The small, longitudinal LC meetings fostered psychological safety for sharing feedback, engaging in difficult conversations, and overcoming challenges such as impostor phenomenon. Serving as LCLs extended alumni's leadership development by offering a low-stakes opportunity to practice small group facilitation, peer coaching and leading through influence rather than positional authority while requiring minimal additional resources beyond coordination and periodic group coaching. Early, proactive support also mattered when groups struggled. The regular check-ins with LCLs allowed us to troubleshoot attendance issues, revisit meeting times and combine small groups. The alumni-led Learning Circle modelled a way to deepen reflection, enhance skills, and provide autonomy and connection to increase leadership confidence while sustaining community. Because it builds on existing programs and engages graduates as near-peer facilitators, it is readily transferable and scalable to other institutions seeking to extend the impact of their leadership development efforts. Sookyung Suh, PhD conceived the initial idea and led the development of the manuscript. Boyung Suh, PhD and Andrew Sanghyun Lee, PhD critically reviewed the first draft and contributed to the writing and revision of subsequent versions. All authors approved the final manuscript. The authors would like to thank Dr. Nicole Roberts for her thoughtful review of the initial draft and for offering valuable insights that helped us focus on the most meaningful aspects of the intervention for our readers. The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to the content of this article. This project was reviewed by the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board and determined to be a non-human subjects study as part of an ongoing program evaluation and continuous improvement for the Accelerate leadership development program (IRB #23-353, Reference #033167, determination dated July 13, 2023). The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.