The O-Gap (or Comparing Healthcare and Construction)

As many of us attempt to transform the construction industry, we’ve considered a few comparisons:

• The manufacturing industry, which started using digital tools and co-location to produce something physical so many years ago.
• The animation industry, where diverse firms team up to design and develop a one-off product

I’d like to propose yet another comparison: the healthcare industry. It certainly isn’t a perfect analogy (what industry is?), but the two industries share characteristics that seem to be barriers to innovation:

• Complex network  of stakeholders, with mismatched incentives
• A primarily paper-based process that is threatened by digital records, co-location, and remote teams
• About 1/3 of personnel effort is considered waste
• Ego-driven professionals (sorry surgeons... and architects... and contractors... and…)
• Investigations into digital records, co-location, and remote services

Moreover, unlike the manufacturing or firm industries, healthcare is currently going through its major transformation now. Just like construction.
Given the similarities, it was interesting to hear Naomi Fried, PhD share the strategy, successes, and challenges with Boston Children’s Innovation Acceleration Program. Although I ended up with multiple pages of notes, there is one concept that stood out: the O-Gap.
A term coined by Naomi, the O-Gap (operationalization gap) represents the challenges associated with translating a new idea to broad operations.

The O-Gap isn't unique to healthcare, or even to “large organizations or networks.” It’s everywhere that innovation is. Closing the O-Gap is challenging, but Naomi recommends a few strategies:

• Invoice operations early
• Engage leadership
• Consider technical issues which may impede scaling 

Are you seeing the O-Gap in your organization? What are you doing to close the gap?