It is always amazing to me how many well educated executives struggle with their performance because of their dislike of ambiguity — the state of uncertainty or lack of clarity. The afflicted always deny it but when but you strip away their protestations to the contrary, you find an executive in desperate pursuit of certainty, sort of like Lindsey Lohan looking for a liquor store at closing time, as a comedian once quipped.
If certainty about the future of how healthcare service delivery is critical to your success, you will not be a happy camper over the next 10 years.
Certainty is nice, but the state of uncertainty creates opportunities for innovators or entrepreneurs. It also opens doors for promotion to bigger responsibilities and will require a national voice capable of breaking through the fumbling and mumbling in Congress which, ultimately, has the power to provide clarity.
Here is a good example. In healthcare today, the executives who understand the future — managing care beyond the walls — face the financial challenges of a reimbursement system that does not reward their efforts.
The problem is that there are several hospital management corporations and some not-for-profit health systems which contribute to our uncertainty by playing the passive-aggressive in trying to delay the inevitable — and the best option — because they are, at the end of the day, addicted to a business model that pays for procedures and butts in the bed. They may talk about value based reimbursement and population health management, but that is the last thing on their minds. They want to keep things the way they are and they will use their own political influence to add to the ambiguity. It turns out that the politics within the healthcare industry is just as divided and dysfunctional as in Washington and most state houses.
So, you can let the “politicians” and some self-serving corporate/system executives control your future, or you can overcome your dislike of the ambiguity that will be around for the foreseeable future, and plot your own course.