The Lost Day

It’s 9:30 am and it’s become clear that productivity in our suburban Chicago office is going to take a beating today. It’s understandable. Nearly two years after it started, the long march to the general election has reached what many sensationalists in the media would call its “historic conclusion.” Here, that means a lot of excited “watercooler” talk, stories of lining up at 5:00 am and free Starbucks.

As auspicious as any other day, today seemed a good day to wander into the realm of blogging. I’ve been reading quite a few over the past year, some I’d even recommend, like Professor John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School, looking to see if there was any open space in the web’s crowd. There certainly is a lot of information and opinion—some bordering on evangelism—out there. Probably no value adding to that discordant symphony.

Foremost, I’m a wonderer, not an expert. I have an informed, thoughtful point of view—on anything to be sure—but I believe in the aphorism, “All of us are smarter than one of us.” One thing I thought I might do a bit differently is present this space as a whiteboard for fellow healthcare propellerheads. Use this forum as a venue to work through ideas, knotty questions, and host conversations. As healthcare strategists, we are certainly all sifting through the experts, the pundits, the analysts and commentators trying to turn notions into advice for organizations. Plus, I just love having complex conversations with people, sharing them, strapping on the propeller beanie and giving an idea a thorough going over!

My plan is to tee up an idea or two at a time, share and invite leading thought on the topic, exercise it a bit, and get the people who read this one step closer to strategically sound action.

Rather than go too far too fast, I’ll break here. Let’s see how the red states and blue states fall tonight and then explore some implications germane to the immediate and long-term future of health care and America’s health care system. Besides, the whole day can’t be lost to this...no matter the fun of the excuse!