How Focused Are We On Innovation That Increases The Workplace Productivity

I started my practice in 2001 and was aware at that time that having a paperless practice right from the beginning is salient and crucial. I never had the problem of shifting my practice to paperless. The struggles for those who had to shift to paperless were significant. Some had to hire dedicated staff for this job others wasted a lot of their time and the time of their staff figuring out how to enter tons of existing data as well as new data coming every day into a system that not everyone is trained on and understands. Almost the same thing happened before and during the pandemic with the implementation of telemedicine and telehealth. It is also happening now after the pandemic as we see the workplace changing. Organizations and employees now have different needs from two years ago. Many practice managers are noticing that the workspace needs to be reorganized to suit the new needs of employees and ensure operability and productivity. Innovation helps you identify early when your practice needs reorganization before the shifting process becomes time-consuming and expensive.

Some of the early indicators that the workplace needs reorganization come from your employees. A healthy and normal workplace is translated by energized and motivated employees who are in control of the jobs they perform. They judge, decide, and achieve results because they are qualified, trusted, and given freedom. Despite a workload, they are allowed to get the desired life balance, and they are rewarded, valued, and held accountable based on their achievements, not the time spent in their job. Before those indicators begin to change or stop being true you need to take action and be prepared for reorganization.

In “The Discipline of Innovation”, management guru, Peter Drucker, explains that innovation is not only inspiration and hard work. If it were an inspiration, managers would have an insignificant role and the focus would be on hiring the right people who will guarantee the job will be done. If innovation were only hard work then management would have the role of establishing the right roles and processes, setting clear goals and relevant measures, and reviewing progress at every step. However, Drucker points to something in between inspiration and hard work, something that is based on knowledge, ingenuity, and focus. Talent plays an important role in innovation that should be coupled with purposeful work, diligence, persistence, and commitment.

To be able to solve the problem of innovation at the workplace as we constantly see external factors directly affecting the productivity of our teams, we need to adopt Drucker’s understanding of innovation which is at the very foundation of entrepreneurship that ensures you always have a competitive edge.