In his 2015 book, The End of Average, Todd Rose cautions against the pitfalls of designing systems based on averages, a concept he calls “averagarianism.” He argues that relying on the mean or judging success in terms of deviation from the mean can lead to ineffective and potentially harmful outcomes. Rose cites the example of Gilbert Daniels, a researcher in the 1950s whose work prompted the U.S. Air Force to design personalized cockpit features for pilots of various shapes and sizes, moving away from the notion of a standard, average pilot. This innovation significantly improved safety records. The essence of…
Monthly Archives:December 2023
Most people think of failure in the wrong way. They see it as simply negative. We’re conditioned through school – and healthcare providers go through a lot of school – that our biggest fear becomes failing. This is unfortunate. You should think of failure as a temporary defeat. You’ve learned over and over again that thinks either work or they don’t work. From the time you learned to walk and through school and starting your practice, many things have worked and many things have not worked. Yet, we convince ourselves from today forward that everything is just going to work.…
The Challenge of Employee Discontent In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the challenges we face extend beyond the patient’s chair. As leaders in orthodontics, it’s crucial to recognize the growing issue of employee discontent within our teams. Despite increased investments in employee benefits during the pandemic, many orthodontic professionals find themselves grappling with rising dissatisfaction among their valuable staff. Stephan Scholl, CEO of Alight Solutions, rightly pointed out in a recent Wall Street Journal article by Vanessa Fuhrmans and Lindsay Ellis that increased spending on benefits doesn’t always translate into happier employees. “In an Alight survey of 2,000 U.S. employees…
