In defence of the ordinary

I think this might be a general cultural problem, but I notice it a lot in my field of healthcare analytics. There are lots of “case studies” and “pathfinders”, that kind of thing, groups of people who are doing amazing stuff.

I don’t think that it has the desired effect though. People look at these groups doing incredibly complicated things with new tools and they think it just doesn’t apply to them. Let the pathfinders pathfind and we’ll just churn out some rubbish in Excel, same as last week.

I wonder if we’d be better off setting the bottom higher, rather than raising the bar at the top again. Instead of showing off amazing teams, showcase a solid team getting the basics right, week in, week out. And try to pose the question “If you’re not doing this stuff, why not?”