How Asking Why You Do What You Do Can Improve Your Practice

Why do you do what you do? I am not asking you how you do it or what you do, but why you do it. This is a critical question to ask and answer for yourself and your patients. Simon Sinek’s book Start With Why describes the “Golden Circle” of what/how/why. His TED Talk provides an excellent summary of the book and I highly recommend viewing it to better grasp the question.¹ In his TED Talk, Mr. Sinek explains that most companies or people operate and communicate what they do from the outside in. He considers that a mistake. Those companies that operate and communicate from the inside out do not just have customers, they have lifetime devotees. As I have been evaluating my practice’s future, I have returned to this concept as the basis for everything we will do going forward. Essentially, “how” we do what we do must originate from our “why.” As I try to systemize our practice to produce consistent results for our patients, the foundation of everything that we do must center on our why. As I develop treatment algorithms for the physicians that are or will be in our practice, those algorithms must be based on our why. When we practice from our why, our patients become advocates for our practice. At this point, you are probably asking, “What in the world is my ‘why’ (or perhaps why ask why)?” I describe our why/how/what below. If I succeed in leading my team through this simple yet profoundly effective approach by applying it to everything we say, do and think, I believe there are no limits to the satisfaction of our patients, which is the sole factor in achieving our dream practice. Why? We believe healthcare is a basic human right. We believe everyone from developing countries to the most developed countries should have equal access to state-of-the-art healthcare. We believe foot health affects quality of life. How? We strive to exceed our patient's expectations in both customer service and outcomes by using internal systems to provide reproducible results and treatment algorithms and patient education to provide evidence-based comprehensive podiatric care. What? We utilize evidence-based medicine to treat patients in our private clinics, volunteer free clinics and medical service volunteerism in developing countries. We treat all patients entrusted to our care with the same respect and caring we would use with a family member. So, what is your “why”? Reference 1. Available at https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action .