We have new challenges, competitors, technological advances, customer expectations, and an ever-changing digital world. Should we be creative or aim for efficiency to improve our businesses? The answer is both. For example, we must balance improving the process and experience of what we do to evolve in the market. Furthermore, we work towards improving the efficiency of our work to gain profitability and improve our treatment. Let’s be efficient today and ready for the future of orthodontic care.
Creativity drives innovation and change
It helps us develop better processes and improve the patient experience. It is challenging to change and evolve something that already works in orthodontics. But since the specialty began, doctors have been looking into new treatment modalities, bonding techniques, and appliances to keep us moving forward. As a result, creative marketing keeps us relevant with consumers looking to improve their smiles while maintaining the importance of seeing an orthodontist.
Efficiency drives process improvement
Simplicity, reduced variability, and efficiency are critical for a business to thrive. We aim to systematize the orthodontic workflow, reduce treatment times, and reduce the number of appointments to run leaner. We improve the bottom line and help streamline care — practice and patient benefit. But efficiency is the antithesis of creativity. While we aim to gain options and explore new possibilities with creativity, efficiency tightens the options to those that tip the key indicators in our favor and lead to measurable, better results.
Exploration vs. exploitation
The biggest challenge is balancing the exploration creativity brings and the exploitation offered by greater efficiency. Exploration focuses on the long-term, creativity, flexible adaptation, external focus, and growth focus. In contrast, exploitation looks at the short-term, efficiency, rigid discipline, internal focus, and productivity focus. However, the most successful companies and organizations take advantage of both. They are successful today with great profitability and efficiency within their core competence, but they don’t get left behind by implementing efforts to explore creatively.
“A way to think about it is innovation requires variation. And in manufacturing—six sigma, all that stuff—you’re trying to reduce variation. The fundamental manufacturing paradigm is to reduce variation, and the fundamental creative innovation paradigm is to increase it.”- Reed Hastings, 3 Secrets to Netflix’s Success.
