Yes, If…
I’ve heard it at just about every stop in my career since focusing on the Internet: “We can’t do that because….” All too often the conversation stops there. And when it comes to some interactive or operational element on the Web, it often becomes the answer for a long time, even if the “because” is not longer valid.
I used to have written on my white board, “Yes, if…”
I heard a speaker at the Healthcare Internet Conference point out that even if the answer is fundamentally the same, replying with “Yes, if…” keeps the discussion going, while saying, “No, because…” tends to shut it off.
If doing what you were asked will require $250,000, you could answer, “No, because we don’t have $250,000.” Or, you could answer, “Yes, if we had $250,000.” Either way, you may need more money than you probably have available, but the second answer leads to discussion about what you could afford.
Many times with the Internet, the issue isn’t money. Here are some real examples of how a “Yes, if…” answer got the organization to a better place:
- Organization A wants to add online bill payment, but the conversation is grinding to a halt because they can’t get the IS resources to access multiple patient billing and accounting systems. If the answer was, “Yes, we could do that if the online payment dumped into the same system that phone payments dump into,” the conversation continues and in no time the organization has an online bill payment function that generates millions of dollars a year.
- Organization B wants to offer online appointment requests, but the discussion has stopped because somebody raised the HIPAA red flag. The answer turned around to, “Yes, we could offer online appointment requests if the patient information goes into a secure system staff will have to log into instead of directly into their email.” The result? Hundreds of online appointment requests a month.
Just two simple examples, not only of the power of “Yes, if…” but also of how simple alternatives can get you a highly functional online option, even though it might not be entirely what was originally envisioned.
Think simple, think what’s possible, and even if it’s just a step at a time, you’ll find yourself with incredible results to report!