It took billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of people to send a rocket to the moon over many years. Since that accomplishment, moonshot as a metaphor has been commonplace in healthcare and for many other challenges. But there is a difference between sending a rocket to the moon, which is a complicated problem, and most of the challenges in healthcare and our world, are complex problems. Understanding how to approach these different types of problems will be the difference between ongoing unsustainability in our world and the opportunity to make meaningful impact on significant issues like resolving cancer, ending homelessness and poverty, and addressing other challenges that plague our world, including any emergent pandemic.
For business leaders, understanding the difference between complicated and complex problems can mean the difference between failure and success, as described with definitions for these different types of problems in this 2017 article from Inc. I wrote a blog post about the unintended harm of using war as a metaphor for disease last year. Similarly, using moonshot as a metaphor results in an inappropriate method for addressing complex problems. Solving complicated problems takes time, money, and experts – the solution is not available for just any group of people. But money, time, and experts can’t solve complex problems because they are not solvable. We have seen relatively little impact on resolving cancer despite the billions of dollars, hundreds of thousands (or maybe millions) of experts, and the many years since declaring war on cancer, beginning with the signing of the National Cancer Act in 1971, and more recently a moonshot to cure cancer.
Complex problems can’t be solved, but they can be managed and improved. By working in small, diverse teams on the front-line of any complex problem in each local environment and using the appropriate data science tools with feedback loops, insights can be learned and applied to improve outcomes. These local insights and algorithms can then be networked to share learnings for the ongoing improvement of measured outcomes. When we learn how to properly address complex problems, this will lead to a sustainable healthcare system and a better world.
(Fun Fact: I have a direct link to the signing of the National Cancer Act. I joined the Letton and Mason Surgical Group after I graduated from my surgery residency in 1994. A. Hamblin Letton was my senior partner and the surgeon who was on the stage with President Nixon at the signing ceremony in the video linked above.)
By: Bruce Ramshaw, MD | Co-Founder & CEO of CQInsights