Wayfinding in the Corn Maze is Like Navigating Your Healthcare Journey.

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." - J. Maxwell

Leadership or lost?

As a patient, navigating a hospital is like arriving on the first day of school or finding yourself in a corn maze not knowing which way to turn. A Nightmare on Elm Street with surgical Freddie, or just the twilight zone, Halloween of healthcare delivery?

And as patients, we tend to follow the wayfinding path as best we can since the reason we are there is more important than the challenge of arriving at the actual location without hassle. We've all been there either for ourselves or for a family member.

Full transparency here... currently, not a patient. More like a free-agent healthcare marketer where #Linkedin becomes a forum to blog post about some very real issues facing current healthcare industry models.

While this piece is not designed to be critical of clinical quality in any way, it's more to advocate for real operational change and a call to address the patient experience under a recalibrated consumer expectation.

The challenge faced by businesses - especially healthcare - throughout the world is their strong affinity for the 'status quo' despite significant disruption and a clear understanding that it all needs to change for the better...for themselves and for their customers.

Business articles are quoted repeatedly:

• "Leaders understand that they must allocate human and financial resources to new-growth efforts or face a future in which start-ups and other rivals overtake them. Yet they are often paralyzed by the status quo and disagreement about the future."
• “Our world is changing, and our strategy must change too,” leaders exhort. "Advisers are hired, data is gathered, numbers are crunched, and decisions are made. But the seeming consensus doesn’t translate into action. So the process repeats, but the apparent alignment isn’t deep enough to drive real change."

It seems the overarching published message is about divided or aligned leadership and how to get to the latter. We observe that talk channeled every day in healthcare. We've also heard it all before...'let's all get on the same page.'

So, it's a question of leaders clearly articulating a vision, having the stomach to stay the course in serious white water, and holding all accountable throughout. Not an easy occupation given the push-pull of influencers inside and outside organizations. "Not on my watch" is too often the crosshair sand pit where true innovative heads get buried.

Enter today's healthcare marketer who is tasked to take on many new challenges in an environment caught between 'what we've always done,' with being charged to find new ways to bring organizations along, find new revenue and counter the disruption.

Fix the culture, please, is the cry from above. Influence operations. Enhance the patient experience. Drive revenue. Oh, and manage brand reputation and keep the competition at bay. And, can you get that done in the next eight weeks before the next board meeting? What!?!

The words, 'change agent' never occupied more meaning and marketing never had more skin in this game. Be careful what you ask for, too. Turnover is rampant, the highest of any leadership position, the result of a clear lack of patience and discipline in many provider organizations.

A reactive business model is not a strategy nor a vision for those wanting to survive. Successful outcomes no longer equate to success. And long-term strategic planning barely exists. Yet, despite those roadblocks, the time is ripe to seize the moment.

Can marketers really take on this challenge and be a catalyst for change and new action?

Short answer...Yes, and happening in many healthcare organizations already.

Growing marketing relationships with IT and access to technology, data, and analytics to target consumers wants and needs based on real models with actionable content that makes sense are all part of their new toolkit and evolved DNA.

While organizational patience is woefully lacking, it's imperative for success. And, leadership is in demand for those willing to break through the perceived safety of status quo thinking and knock down those silos to affect progress.

High-quality care, provider experience, clinical expertise, technology, and data to efficiently manage chronic disease, along with the latest therapies all converge to build a platform for success. The missing ingredients point to meaningful consumer engagement, evolutionary leadership, and a financing formula that prevents total industry revolution -- which by the way rests in the armed hands of the 'patient as consumer' who already has moved demand far beyond what is currently being delivered.

So, asking the question again...would you rather lead or dream up another Nightmare on Elm Street?