Agile Business Navigator

My cardiologist's office surprised me the other day. I walked up to the 'check-out' desk to make my next appointment. I watched as the receptionist pulled out three books, yes, you read that correctly, books. She checked all three books - one for his surgical appointments, one for his office appointments and one for I have no idea why he has the third. Sure she had a clear date and time for me she asked me if the one she selected would work for me. All settled into his schedule - I asked the question that has itched at me for the months I have been seeing him.

Why don't you use a computer program to manage his schedule? The answer was even more surprising. We do she answered. But it can't handle all the complexities of the multiple doctors and multiple schedules that we keep….So what we do is we keep the paper books, then we transfer the appointments over later. Why? Oh, its too expensive to switch to a new system that could handle it all she tells me.

Really? Let's factor in the time it takes to manage all the books and the computer based schedules, plus the time to keep them in sync, plus the time you'd save on the additional features that a computer based schedule can give you. To me, its like a person who always buys cheap furniture and clothing. As each item breaks or tears, they buy another cheap one to replace it. Over time if they'd purchased quality goods, they would be that much further ahead.

If you are keeping two sets of anything - take a look at the overall cost you're carrying - it may be less expensive to bite the bullet and replace it with the more expensive - more efficient system.

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