When it comes to making operational adjustments to meet a new requirement, do your healthcare leaders make their business decisions proactively or reactively? Do they make decisions when there is time to make an adjustment, or do they wait until the last minute? If you’re experiencing the latter, one reason might be that your leaders suffer from what I like to call “overwhelmed-by-perception” (OBP).

When it comes to just about anything in life, perceptions define our reality which affects our behaviors (i.e., action or inaction). In the context of a new regulatory change, what often holds up a business decision is a healthcare leader’s perception about how the requirement will affect their department. Sometimes this perception can be based on a false reality due to lack of information, which leads to OBP.