Proclivity

I know you are wondering…what does that word even mean. Well, before you pick up your phone and google it, let me define it for you. It is “a tendency to choose or do something regularly; an inclination or predisposition toward a particular thing.” I believe we all have proclivities in our life. Some more than others. I will admit that I have some proclivities in my life. I choose do to certain things regularly or have an inclination toward particular things. Sometimes our proclivities can lead to neurosis regarding certain things. Whether we realize it or not. In the business world we have to at times analyze our systems to ensure that we are not stuck doing the same thing all the time just because it is how we have done it for many years. Change is difficult and can be hard at times. In the years that I have been in business we have had to change some things to make processes better or to meet customer needs. I remember our most difficult change was in software. We had been using the same software since we began…more than 15 years. We came to a realization that the software was not meeting our needs or our customers. The one way to make everyone’s life turn upside down is to change software. Many of you have experienced this. It is not fun. Looking back it was the best decision we have ever made. After the initial shock of learning a new software, we found the new software was better than we had anticipated and met ours and our clients needs so much better. If we had insisted on staying the status quo we would have missed out on the opportunity to grow. Proclivities can keep us from changing which in turn stagnates us from growing. Sometimes the business model stops being productive and needs to be retooled. In your medical practice, analyze your processes and change those that are not meeting your needs and your patient’s needs. Don’t get stuck in your own proclivities.