At NueHealth, we use declarative statements to help us shape our growth, and the second of the four statements is “We learn.” This statement encompasses our commitments to seek knowledge, to be lifelong learners and to embrace change.
Change is inevitable. In an organization, you’re either growing or you’re dying. If, as a company, you want to be more and do more, you probably already have a vision about what the company looks like in ten years. The next consideration is, what changes do you need to embrace to make that vision a reality? What sort of pivots do you want to make in your organization? In essence, what should we stop doing? What should we start doing? And what should we continue to do? To make these decisions wisely, you really need to seek knowledge about your industry, your markets, and your partners or customers. It’s critically important in business to understand everything about the industry that you’re in. No matter how much I have going on in a given day, I never hesitate to take advantage of any opportunity that arises if there’s any ounce of knowledge or learning that I can get from it. Any time there’s anything that I can learn about healthcare, I’m going to embrace it and dive right into it when I have a moment to do so.
For example, recently I met with Nueterra Capital’s Senior Vice President for Research and Development to discuss the HIMSS conference in Orlando. I read through three different health care publications that arrived so I could make sure I had the latest information. Those are just examples. You have to seek out and absorb every bit of relevant knowledge that you can, so that you know what you want to change and what direction you want to go.
You can even glean knowledge from people who challenge your decisions or your approach. I think there’s something to be learned from everybody, even someone objecting to what you’re doing. If I’m speaking in front of a large audience and someone vocally disagrees with what I’m saying, I’ll probe more. Not only do I want to understand and have clarification of their objection, but more importantly, I think I might learn something from their objection. At the very minimum, I’m learning what I need to do to make my point better down the road. Probing and asking questions with curiosity is completely different than arguing. I think arguing is a waste of time; life is too short. I want to understand the objection, and then I can make a decision about whether I should revise my approach or conclusions based accordingly. Being able to take a step back and consider objections is a critical part of learning and embracing change.
