Run that past me again
Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 8:02PM
Chris Mimnagh

Here's an interesting thought.
If your brightest creative mind comes up with an idea what do you do?
The chances are is you would put the idea through some sort of technical assessment.
Ask the numbers guy, the operations girl, the team who "sense check" for a practical solution.

So what happens if the numbers man comes up with a way to slash the costs?
I'm willing to bet that most organisations in healthcare say "Ok let's do it!"

Maybe if you have a clinically led organisation you might run it past the Docs.

But would you run it past the out of the box thinkers?

Why do we subject the creative solution to technical scrutiny, but not subject technical solutions to creative scrutiny?

I would suggest that our society has developed a trust of the "real" the empirical, the concrete.
However transformation and evolution are the outputs of the creative, abstract and "wrong".

I'm not suggesting that every hospital or practice needs to employ a team to "think out of the box" or that the finance department is wrong to point out that a proposed solution is not cost effective.
I am suggesting that any one and every one should take a moment to check out the the latest idea, mandate or proposal twice.
The first time work in your preferred mode, creative or technical, reach a decision then stop.
Run that same idea again but think in your best attempt at your non preferred mode.
Does it make practical, financial cost effective sense? Does it make creative, innovative, developmental sense?

Ideas, initiatives, solutions or projects that deliver in both modes will be the ones that really deliver in new ways.

Article originally appeared on Clinical Creativity (http://clinicalcreativity.squarespace.com/).
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