How I Became a Healthcare Detective
(Rather than Amanda Woodward)
I thrive on discovering the unknown. It’s our team’s foundational belief and why we feel honored when organizations trust us with their m ost challenging questions.
Questions are swirling around organizations today. The result of allowing them to just swirl is that too often teams are locked into the status quo, fenced in by an inclination to do what has been done before. Change seems harder than ever. That’s especially true when leaders don’t know what better options might be available. These are the things we ponder each day.
Let’s take a trip back in time! Bear with me. I always dreamed of joining the glamorous world of advertising…I wanted to be Amanda Woodward on Melrose Place (Heather Locklear’s character for those who weren’t devotees). Once I got there I realized while advertising is creative (and not glamorous), design-thinking, research, and planning were my passions. I was the steak, and they were the sizzle.
Once I got there I realized while advertising is creative (and not glamorous), design-thinking, research and planning were my passions.
Everywhere I turned this high-level research and planning work was lacking in the business world I was in. Profit and loss, or worse flawed assumptions drove decisions, which still didn’t always result in changes that truly affected the bottom line. I realized organizations often didn’t have the right information—insight into the “why” rather than just the “what” to make the best decisions.
There was something basic lacking. The best way I can describe it is a disconnect between the decisions being made and the humans on the other side of those choices. It was empathy and the human element that was coming up short in many of these decisions.
Maybe your consumers are making choices that are confusing to you and your team. What if they are choosing to buy from a competitor NOT because of a superior product, but rather because they were guided by great customer service each step of the way? Maybe you are convinced clients are missing appointments because of transportation issues when the real reason is they can’t find enough value or ROI to leave work early and drive to get there.
The best piece of advice I ever received from a mentor was “You don’t know what you don’t know.” That is something I carry with me each day of my life.
You don’t know what you don’t know
That was my a-ha moment. That’s when I knew this was a gap and it was needed in the market. Since 2008, our focus has been data-driven, evidence-based insight and guidance. I’m here to tell you the answers are there, but you have to seek them out. The answers are in asking the right questions through thoughtful, unbiased quantitative and qualitative research.
If your team is running up against the same challenges over and over again, this is where our group shines. We help organizations see the unseen.
We help organizations see the unseen.
It’s not always the easiest task, but it’s what we do best and why we are growing.
Simply Strategy is a consulting and research firm which specializes in helping organizations who are in the business of helping others.
For more information on our work and our recent award from the St. Louis Business Journal, please click here.