A good beginning makes a good ending

The best option to predict the success of an innovation project is a crystal ball that allows you to see the future. In absence of such a ball, the second-best option is making the start of your innovation project count. A good beginning makes a good ending – that is certainly true for innovation projects!

How innovation can prevent a burnout

It is well documented that burnout among professionals is a problem. Especially among clinicians, the high workload in combination with an enormous amount of bureaucracy, make that many are struggling to make it through each day. Did you know that innovation and improvement projects can help prevent burnouts? The size of the problem The numbers […]

Afraid of Taxi drivers?

Are you afraid of taxi drivers? What about their dirty cabs, the lack of clarity about the price, and their often lousy knowledge of the local roads and traffic? Why I ask? Taxi driver as a profession Being a taxi driver used to be a profession. In London for example, “taxi drivers go through stringent […]

What You Can Do With Technology

“Don’t ask what technology can do for you, but ask what you can do with technology.” This is the marketing slogan from Microsoft for their Artificial Intelligence platform. This commercial ends with the question: “You have the power of technology at your finger-tips. What will you do with it?”.  Technology at your finger-tips Indeed, you […]

The Data Does Not Work

Recently prof. Antoinette de Bont became full professor at the Erasmus University in the Netherlands. Part of the Dutch tradition is to give an ‘Oratie’ – a lecture to define your agenda and field of research as full professor at the University.

The Gap

There is a rapidly widening gap between what is technologically possible and how professionals practice their profession. This gap exists, because for each new technological advance, a high level of analysis and review is needed before lawyers, physicians, or other professionals can implement it. This prudent approach is causing a growing tension, that after 50 […]

Checklist for the Do It Yourself (DIY) Innovator

Are you a Do It Yourself (DIY) Innovator? Either by choice or by necessity? No worries, we have you covered. For each of the steps of the innovation process, the checklist for the do it yourself innovator explains what to focus on. The checklist The checklist provides you with: An overview that shows you what you […]

Guidance and recognition for innovation initiatives

To provide guidance and recognition for innovation initiatives, you need to strike a delicate balance. On the one hand there is the need for sometimes competing interests of individuals versus team recognition. You need both. On the other hand, you need a healthy mixture of unguided creativity and control. In which case neither is good. […]

The Value of Feeling Valued

Employees are the most precious resource in law firms, engineering firms, hospitals and all other professional service organizations. Professionals are paid well, and value their paycheck. Yet, just paying your employees well is not sufficient to keep them happy. As study after study has shown, employees who feel valued perform better and stick around longer. […]

Prioritize!

How do you prioritize in a world that demands more, more and even more from you? Recently Deloitte published a report “Six alignment strategies health systems can consider“.  It is a nice example of demanding more instead of less. The report describes six alignment strategies healthcare systems can use to ensure consolidations of medical practices […]

Healthcare disruption by tech giants and insurance companies?

On 02/10/2018 the Washington Post featured an interesting article “The tech industry thinks it is about to disrupt healthcare, don’t count on it“, by Carolyn Johnson. The article provides a unique insight in a failed high-tech healthcare solution intended to disrupt healthcare.

The Life of an Idea

What happens with an idea, after it pops up in your head? You think about it. You read about it. Do some background research. Talk with a few people… Eventually, when it has passed these initial “sanity” checks, you may put it forward to your manager, to get his or her take on your idea […]