Q&A with Sinead Lucey

Reading time: approx 8 minutes

Meet the Patrons interview with Sinéad Lucey of RCPI

As part of Learnovate’s Meet the Patrons series, we speak to Sinéad Lucey, Director of Business Development and Examinations at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, a postgraduate medical training college and historic institution founded in 1654.

Based on Kildare Street in Dublin city, RCPI delivers examinations and structured training to trainee medical professionals. The college provides access to a network of more than 14,000 doctors from 90 countries around the world and offers a range of programmes for international doctors on a sponsorship and scholarship basis.

Sinéad has been with RCPI since May 2022, joining from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) where she worked as Head of E3 Business Development, heading up projects to bring together the schools of computer science, engineering and natural science in a newly constructed campus building, the Martin Naughton E3 Learning Foundry.

Sinéad’s professional career began after she graduated from UCC with a degree in Commerce in 1998, first going into sales before transitioning into a career in business development with HFC Bank, New Ireland Assurance, Munster Technological University and the Royal College of Surgeons. She joined Irish Universities Association in 2010. It was during her time there that Sinéad earned her master’s degree in development education and global learning. She joined TCD in 2019.

As Director of Business Development and Examinations with RCPI, Sinéad is responsible for the strategic direction of growth in the organisation as well as the management of strategic partnerships. She also has oversight of examinations, a large business function as membership of the RCPI is contingent on passing both written and clinical exams.

Sinéad is a mother of three and is in the final stages of a graduate diploma in innovation and strategy from UCD Smurfit.

What are the biggest lessons you learned in your career?

My first instinct used to be rash, and I would jump the gun or to conclusions. I’d say the biggest thing I’ve learned over the years is to take a breath and sleep on things. When you’re deciding something significant, it’s important to listen to all perspectives, have your decisions challenged and have a team member play devil’s advocate. Once a decision is made, you must be satisfied that you’ve looked at things from all angles and you’re not relying too much on gut instinct or previous outcomes.

What was the best advice you ever received?

To be more of an active listener because you get a lot more information that way. My mother used to have a great saying, ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’. Listening to people and really hearing and digesting what they’re saying is an important skill when designing and implementing strategy.

How would you define your work style and how has this changed over your career?

I’m much more open and collaborative these days. It’s vital that my team feel supported, nurtured and know that I’m behind them. My background is in business development where I could fly solo and be very ambitious about targets. My role has changed significantly over the years and I now have a large team. You need to be much more available, collaborative, and communicative with the team. I think this style leads to excellent results and fosters a good culture in a team.

What have you learned about managing teams and individuals?

It’s okay if the dynamic between the team is not always perfect. People have different views and biases so that’s going to lead to some level of conflict. Managing a team, you need to take the emotion out and have a space where people can express their views freely. My team know they’re not going to be judged for having a different opinion. I encourage debate. I want ideas to be challenged and for the team to look at things and ask, ‘Is there a better way to do this?’ Because we’ve always recruited international doctors a certain way, it doesn’t mean we have to continue following that path or process. We are open to change.

How has AI impacted your organisation/industry?

AI will have an extraordinary impact on the medical industry. The depth of data will help physicians make more informed treatment decisions, leading to better patient and healthcare outcomes, so that’s a good thing.

From an RCPI perspective, we’re dipping our toe in the water and being part of Learnovate is supporting the college to do that. We see the potential of large language models to automate some of the more mundane clerical tasks so our staff can devote more time to training and enriching the educational journey of trainee doctors. We also see the value of AI having the ability to personalise a doctor’s learning journey throughout their career and this will only improve the experience of doctors overall.

Another important development is our move to make our examinations available to physicians in remote parts of the world, supporting improvement in healthcare in those regions. AI and other technologies are enabling and allowing us to do that. There’s also more scope to have joint training initiatives with other parts of the world through technology, ultimately making the experience of our trainee doctors more diverse and interesting.

From your experience, what are the current trends in learning?

Personalised learning is an important trend. The technology that’s emerging provides a great opportunity for us to tailor the training and educational journey for doctors and enrich their learning experience. For example, some might need more self-directed learning or extra tutorials. Some might want to study in their own time. Work and life are so much more complex now, so we need to be able to adapt to these circumstances. Technology has the potential to provide a more personalised learning experience for everyone.

What are the biggest skills challenges to your business or sector?

The United Nations cite the skills of the future being centred around global citizenship, creativity, interpersonal skills and innovation. Leadership, too. We have a strong leadership programme for our trainees, who in the future will have to deal with budgets and HR concerns before they even think about bringing their team together to deliver results. Part of being a good leader is the soft skills side of things. The technical side is evolving all the time. Being technologically savvy will help you but you also need to have a life-long learning ethos to aid your continuous development.

What are your favourite tools and resources in work?

Power BI, the interactive data visualisation software from Microsoft, is great for analysis. It helps you to identify trends and gives you an overview of what’s going with different areas of the business.  ChatGPT is also great. I use it a lot and encourage others to generate ideas and develop a starting point. Our marketing department use generative AI for images. People are afraid of ChatGPT, but I read recently about an academic, Andrew Marden from Arizona State University, who got an AI to write a syllabus for prompt engineering. He then got his students to sit down with the document and question everything in it. That’s an example of how AI can give you a head start and help students to look at their work from a different perspective and evolve their learning styles.

Any interesting podcasts or other media do you consume that you would recommend on learning, technology or business?

I listen to Ted Tech when I’m walking. It covers a range of topics – from AI predicting the weather to dancing robots. I’m fascinated by the American and British politics, so I listen to the Rest is Politics US and UK. I also listen to Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. My work requires me to travel extensively in the Middle East and Asia and I find Duo Lingo useful in that it gives you the basics of a language and to pass the time at an airport or on a long flight! Finally, I am big fan of the GAA. I’m a Kerry football supporter, so the Football Pod from Newstalk with Tommy Rooney, Paddy Andrews and James O’Donoughue is great to listen to keep me up to speed.

Why is membership of Learnovate important to your company? What does Learnovate do well?

I work full-time, I’ve three children, and generally have a lot going on. Having a network like Learnovate is fantastic to ensure I’m up to date with things. I’m passionate about strategic partnership. RCPI is going through a period of organisational change. We’re looking to identify one or two key problems in our organisation and leverage our key contacts with Learnovate to help us resolve those problems. To make effective decisions, you need a variety of expertise and opinion – and AI expertise within the Learnovate community is phenomenal. That’s really beneficial to us as a traditional organisation with a history dating back to the 17^th century.

Become a Member

Become part of a global community of leaders in the future of learning and the future of work. Join Learnovate today! Contact membership@learnovatecentre.org to find out more.