“Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they’ve never seen before, something that does not yet exist.” ~Rosabeth Moss Kanter
The single most difficult thing about starting a blog (or anything for that matter) is inertia. Overcoming the resistance to change or doing something new requires an immense about of energy and bravery. The people I most respect are those who do not allow fear to prevent them from trying or creating something new.
As you may know, I am taking a course in Social Media and Health at the University of British Columbia and one course requirement is to start a blog. That said, my goal for this blog isn’t just to fulfill a course requirement, rather, I want to use it as a foundation to build upon and grow. Currently I am a week behind our required posting schedule. This is due to a few issues: 1) I became obsessive about the minute details of the blog (i.e., what it looks like, what the title should be) and 2) I have been interviewing for the last week and will be starting a new job in 1 month.
I understand that my obsessions with the details of the blog was a convenient way to avoid actually having to do the work, if I spent my time on that then I didn’t have any energy for the rest. I see this avoidance as a form of inertia – I very effectively convinced myself that I was moving along and making progress and adopting change when really I was spinning in the same spot.
The interviewing was time consuming but what prevented my posting was the anxiety and fear that the interviewing induced. I have been working in my current job for 3.5 years. I am exceptionally comfortable and safe in it, I could do it with my eyes closed and that is a huge problem. I knew that I had to look for new work in order to challenge myself and grow both personally and professionally, however, the idea of looking for a new job and actually getting one are two very different things. Here too I experienced immense inertia in the form of fear. When I found out on Thursday night that I got the job I wasn’t happy, I was afraid. My fear of change was paralyzing me but I also knew that the fear was good because it meant that I was challenging myself and moving forward. In the end it was that knowledge (and great emotional support from friends) that eventually pushed me to say yes.
So what the heck does this have to do with social media and health???
Generally, I think of health care as an innovative field. A lot of money is poured into research to develop new technologies, treatments, and methods to improve patient care. However, when it comes to social media I feel that health care organizations can sometimes be laggards; they cannot seem to overcome inertia in order to adopt change.
I recently read a great article by KevinMD.com discussing the 7 media mistakes made in health care. It is the first 3 mistakes that I feel best relate to my current post.
- Avoidance: Health organizations have a lot on their hands and are working with ever-shrinking budgets. The idea of taking something new on is extremely daunting, thus it is easier to pretend that it doesn’t exist and you don’t have to deal with it. I think many organizations have told themselves that they have done well without it thus it cannot improve things.
- Fear: This is the consequence of being uninformed. I don’t want to believe that people are afraid of learning something new but it certainly seems that way. By continuing to bury your head in the sand you perpetuate the fear. Health organizations need upper level management to understand these technologies before they can support them but there appear to be very few at that level who do and who appreciate its potential.
- Sloth: As KevinMD mentions, social media takes work. In the case of health organization that requires a commitment of resources. With all of the cuts in spending it seems unlikely that funding could be allocated to something people don’t understand or see the potential of.
These factors, along with others, contribute to the organizational inertia behind adopting social media. Even if that inertia is overcome there is the very real risk that the organization is rushing into the idea without understanding its full implication. By rushing in, a new venture could be doomed to fail and feed into future resistance to change. Thus, organizations need open and educated individuals within them to help guide these activities to ensure success.
As (hopefully one day) a public health leader I take the words of Rosabeth Moss Kanter to heart. It is so critically important to be open to change and to champion change to those around you. It is innovative leaders that can help overcome much of the avoidance, fear and sloth associated with adopting new technologies.
Amanda – thanks for posting your thoughts on this topic. They resonated with me a lot!
I have been attempted to start a blog in the past, and never quite followed through. Avoidance, fear and sloth were definitely contributing factors!
Thanks Leonie,
I’m happy the post resonated. I’ve found myself so challenged to take something like a blog on – the commitment and pressure are immense!
Hopefully we will all be able to support each other through this learning process!
Amanda
Proud of you, X-Boss. Come to think of it, I should pay some attention to my own blog…