{"id":4715,"date":"2016-05-14T13:18:45","date_gmt":"2016-05-14T12:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=4715"},"modified":"2016-05-14T13:18:45","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T12:18:45","slug":"burning-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=4715","title":{"rendered":"Burning Ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.improvementscience.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/flag_waving_mountain_150_clr_13781.gif\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4720\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4720\" src=\"http:\/\/www.improvementscience.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/flag_waving_mountain_150_clr_13781.gif\" alt=\"flag_waving_mountain_150_clr_13781\" width=\"120\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>A wise person once said:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>Improvement implies change, but change does <strong>not<\/strong> imply improvement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">To get improvement on any dimension we need to change something: our location, our perspective, our actions, our decisions, our assumptions, our beliefs even.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">And we <strong>hate<\/strong> doing that because we know from life experience that change does not guarantee improvement. \u00a0Even with well-intended, carefully-considered, and collectively-agreed change &#8230; things can get worse. \u00a0And we fear that. \u00a0So the safest thing to do is &#8230; nothing! \u00a0We sit on the fence.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Until a &#8216;fire&#8217; breaks out. \u00a0Then we are motivated to move by a stronger emotion &#8230; fear for our very survival. \u00a0That bigger fear gives us the necessary push and we move to somewhere cooler and safer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But as the temperature drops, the fear goes away, the push goes away too and we lose momentum and return to torpor. \u00a0Until the next fire breaks out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The other problem with a collective fear-based motivator is that we usually jump in different directions so any shred of cohesion we did have, is lost completely. \u00a0The system fragments. \u00a0Fear is always destructive.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">The alternative to fear-driven change is a different type of motivator &#8230; a burning ambition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Ambition may <em>feel<\/em> just as hot but it is different in that it continues to pull and to motivate us. \u00a0We do not slump back into torpor after the first success. \u00a0If anything the sense of achievement fuels our fire-of-ambition and that pulls us with greater force.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">And when many others share the same burning ambition then we are pulled into alignment on a common purpose and that can become constructive and synergistic &#8230; if we work collaboratively.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">So let us take health care improvement as the example.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">We have a burning platform. \u00a0The newspapers are full of doom-and-gloom about escalating waits, failed targets, weekend mortality effects, spiraling costs and political conflict.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">But do we have a collective burning ambition? \u00a0A common goal? A shared purpose?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">A common goal like a health care system that is safe, delivers on time, meets and exceeds expectation and is affordable ?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">If we do, then what is the barrier to change? We have push and we have pull &#8230; so where is the friction and resistance coming from?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">From inside ourselves perhaps? \u00a0Maybe we harbour limiting beliefs that <em>it is impossible<\/em> or w<em>e can&#8217;t do it<\/em>? \u00a0Beliefs that self-justify our &#8216;do nothing&#8217; decision.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">So only one example that disproves our limiting beliefs is enough to remove them. Just one. \u00a0And I shared a video of it last week &#8211; the Luton &amp; Dunstable one.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">And the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Tfn6vD4yyC4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">animated video by Dr Peter Fuda<\/a> captures the essence of this push-and-pull <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kurt_Lewin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kurt Lewin Force Field<\/a> concept brilliantly!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A wise person once said: Improvement implies change, but change does not imply improvement. To get improvement on any dimension we need to change something: our location, our perspective, our actions, our decisions, our assumptions, our beliefs even. And we hate doing that because we know from life experience that change does not guarantee improvement. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=4715\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Burning Ambition&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,35,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthcare","category-reflections","category-sfqp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}