Envision success before every encounter

As SeamlessMD, it’s important that we:

  1. Focus on the right goals
  2. Execute as fast as possible

This is hard for any startup. It gets even harder when you’re trying to re-design a process that’s been unchanged for decades (the patient journey) in a complex system that’s slow to change (healthcare).

Over the past few years, as we survived the growing pains of navigating multiple stakeholders and bureaucracy, we developed key processes that help us and our customers stay motivated and progress effectively.

One key process that we’ve incorporated is:

Envision success before every encounter.

In other words, you should know exactly what a successful encounter looks like before it starts.

When we were starting out, although we would “prepare” for calls, presentations or meetings, the preparation was focused more on content than outcomes.  That is, we focused more on what to say than figuring out what we wanted to happen.

Which is a mistake because all decisions you make during an encounter should be directed towards a specific outcome. 

Today, whenever we have an encounter, whether it’s with a user, customer, partner or other stakeholder, we always take a moment to envision what success looks like – what we want the outcome to be. Then we write it down. And then we use that outcome to guide the way we plan for the encounter, and how we react to things during it.

It’s amazing how much more successful our encounters are when we know what success look like. It’s actually no different from goal setting in general – except applying it at a micro level.

For instance, if you are meeting someone, ask yourself if success for this encounter is:

  • Getting an answer to a very specific question?
  • Obtaining a referral to a more appropriate person?
  • Reaching agreement on a specific decision?
  • Booking a clear next step and due date?

Otherwise, it’s easy to go on autopilot, have the encounter, and then realize it wasn’t productive in the way you hoped.

Instead, if you know your desired outcome ahead of time, you will be self-aware during the encounter whether it’s heading in the right direction or not. And don’t leave that encounter until you’ve achieved that outcome or know exactly why you can’t.

So before every encounter, start envisioning the exact outcome you want, and I bet your encounters will “magically” become more productive.

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