It was a breezy day. Dozens of sailboats dotted the sea outside of the safety of the Santa Barbara harbor.
Many were running with the wind, being propelled quickly in the direction chosen by it.
Others were heading, in general but not absolute terms, against it by tacking at angles across it.
L’air du temps, the spirit of the times, in healthcare is not much different from the wind buffeting those sailboats: Communal, “we” not “me,” top down not bottom up.
For your medical group to succeed, you need to understand the direction of the societal wind. You might like it. You might hate it. Either way, it’s still windy.
Just as the boat captain must deal with the wind, not ignore it, medical group leaders must in any event accept that l’air du temps is real, that it exists.
If you want to go where that wind is pushing you, then go for it and adopt a business strategy in conformity with it. If you find l’air du temps to be polluted, then chart a course across it, not into it.
But in any event, you can’t simply allow the wind to buffet against you without navigation, and you can’t simply drop sail and pray to be rescued.
