Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to capitalize on the speed achieved – because what comes next is even faster!”

“It’s time to capitalize on the speed achieved – because what comes next is even faster!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Later this afternoon, I’ll be doing a ‘town hall’ talk for medical, administrative and executive staff of a major hospital / healthcare group, with a view to taking them for a brief moment into the future. Subsequent to that, I will spend some time with the Board of Directors to walk them through scenarios as trends as they commence a long term strategic planning process.

I must say, it’s certainly nice to be back at this type of thing!

First up in my ‘slide deck’ which is now a ‘stage set?’ Clearly, an emotional and unequivocal shoutout to all of them in the room. As a Canadian, we often take abuse from other countries for the structure of our healthcare system, but we know we won’t lose our home if we go in for care; and our Covid-19 response has been far better than most. We are all indebted to every single person in this remarkable industry, and I will emphatically make that point.

With that said, as we still find ourselves in the murky waters of the pandemic tsunami, we need to be thinking about how to capitalize on the remarkable things that have been learned in the last six months. The healthcare industry has, like many, moved at a speed which is simply remarkable, which I think is one of the longest lasting transformative trends of the last period of time.

Hospitals talked about virtual services as something they might explore in the future – and suddenly, they had to do it. The medical world talked about the opportunities of ‘medical Twitter’ and fast moving online collaborative networks – and then had to do something about it. The healthcare industry knew that patient disinformation was becoming a significant issue – but suddenly found itself having to confront one of the most tragic eras of disbelief in human history.

All of these trends – and many more – happened at a speed which is simply blinding. In this industry and in many industries, it might not hurt to take a breath, pause for a moment, and think about what we have learned, and how this can provide us a path to progress in the future.

I’m looking forward to the day!