Ensuring the “new” becomes a reality in healthcare

By Jim Weiss, Founder and CEO, W2O

With technology reshaping healthcare and every other industry segment, achieving the desired state can be difficult; leveraging the power of perspective, mindset and communications

Healthcare. Education. Autos. Energy. Insurance. You name it. These and every other industry segment are being transformed by technology. As with everything that is new, expectations are high that a completely different system and experience will result in greater results.

In Education, for example, the consensus today is that we are not preparing students to succeed in a new global reality. Flexibility, tech savvy, translating data to insight, decision-making, communicating in a digital world, and collaborating are the key skills critical for future success. Getting there involves a complete deconstruction of the current model.

For Autos, it will be important to upend the current fossil fuel-based system with electric vehicles, hybrids and autonomous vehicles that will forever change the driving experience and ownership dynamics, based on economic efficiency and sustainable impact.

In Healthcare, a connected ecosystem of physician, patient, caregiver, pharmacist and insurance provider, fueled by medical records, is the goal. In such a world, preventive care and regenerative medicine is the norm, extending life with medication and warding off disease instead of just treating it.

An open, transparent healthcare system with the patient at the center and information flowing freely but confidentially among health professionals with the focus on preventing disease and controlling costs through the use of medical devices, new treatments and customized cures is the future we all seek. But with that vision comes the stark reality that the journey will be neither smooth nor complete.

With every new evolution in business, there is a tendency to overestimate the value and underestimate the journey. This is where it’s critical to grasp the power of progress in evolving to a future state. As communicators and marketers in a digital world, we must view the new forces driving change and manage expectations along the way while engaging people in creating a new paradigm. Just envisioning the bold vision will only perpetuate a hardened perspective around what is “new,” mitigating the opportunity to fail and learn. Original beliefs and thinking are often barriers to real breakthroughs and more highly receptive processes.

Getting to what’s next in any of these industry segments while avoiding the “new” trap will require the following approaches:

1. Compartmentalizing the future state — To ensure the new reality you are working toward is digested and people are prepared to change, invest, learn and deal with the risks and challenges ahead, it’s important to carve out specific elements along the journey. Doing so provides a chance to look ahead – but not too far – and truly assimilate the future ahead.

2. Putting mindset before action — Critical to gaining a new reality is a shift in thinking. Thinking evolves over time, prodded by the right content and ability to interact with others.

3. Assimilating learning — Capturing lessons and recognizing their value is at the core of creating something new. As healthcare evolves, specifically placing the patient at the center, organizations are looking to apply new knowledge to the design, development, infrastructure and system that has been created over the last several years. Both positive and negative experiences will influence the future.

4. Maintaining perspective — Change or ”new” takes time. While the quest to get to a better future drives us to solve the biggest problems in each industry segment, the allure of “new” can also become a barrier to progress without perspective. Perspective brings people along the journey by explaining and exploring the unknowable and applying collective thinking to the next phase of the effort.

5. Becoming a Digital Disrupter — While the digital reality we now find ourselves in is streamlining our personal and professional lives, it’s also establishing new expectations and balance of power, which must be respected and applied to develop completely new systems and relationships.

We find ourselves in an incredible place. Every single industry segment is being rewritten. Every single challenge is being addressed. Knowledge can either be a bridge or a barrier. Getting to a new reality and new purpose is incredibly enticing. But perspective, mindset and communications will be the difference. As marketers and communicators, we have the authority to lead, guide, adapt and direct people through the journey to ensure the new system sticks.

It’s an exhilarating future…but only if we ensure the “new” becomes a reality — and not a dream!

For more information, visit w2ogroup.com.