Malcolm Gladwell: healthcare CX needs rule breakers, artists

League Connect is our annual healthcare consumer experience (CX) conference that convenes leaders and innovators in healthcare, technology and CX. At this year’s event in Miami, New York Times bestselling authors and keynote speakers Malcolm Gladwell and David Epstein explored the concept of rule breakers and artists in healthcare and how out-of-industry lessons about innovation can provide insights and inspiration for CX transformation.

Both speakers highlighted the need for healthcare to embrace “good rule breakers” and focus on the artistry required to craft truly transformative healthcare experiences.

Rule breakers in healthcare

In order to create revolutionary consumer experiences, the paradigm of how things have been done in the past must be broken, and that requires rule breakers who are willing to challenge the status quo. But not all rule breakers are cut from the same cloth. Gladwell and Epstein began their conversation with a question: ​​is the world getting friendlier or less friendly to rule-breakers? 

The answer they came up with is that, unfortunately, it’s getting more difficult for the good rule breakers and easier for the bad ones. But what’s the difference between a good rule breaker and a bad rule breaker? A bad rule breaker is a person or organization that prioritizes a finished product and ignores the difficult questions that guide meaningful experimentation. As Epstein eloquently said, “Innovation doesn’t happen when you already know what you are hoping to solve.” 

Both authors brought up Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos as an example of bad rule breaking. Rather than set out to ask a series of questions and experiment to find a solution, Holmes reversed the traditional pattern and came up with a fully realized, revolutionary concept that she was attempting to reverse-engineer into the research. Zooming out, Gladwell and Epstein suggested that bad rule breaking isn’t just something we should avoid on an individual basis, rather it should be something that we actively recognize and question on an organizational level. When it comes to healthcare CX transformation initiatives, are you exclusively supporting teams that present a fully realized end product?

On the other hand, a good rule breaker is someone who begins the process of innovation by asking the right questions and allows the process of discovery to flow organically from this starting point. Gladwell stated that “It’s more important to have great questions at the outset and stop trying to define the solution before you begin. An innovative rule breaker needs to be savvy and honest about what they are trying to achieve.” Emil Freirich, the individual responsible for modern combination chemotherapy, was referenced as an example of a good rule breaker. He asked bold questions and was willing to be criticized for his experiments. 

When it comes to innovation, especially advancing a field as interconnected and complex as CX in healthcare, it is important to support rule breaking that begins with open-ended questions and that embraces experimentation.

Artists of digital healthcare experiences

Gladwell and Epstein also looked to the world of art to draw parallels with digital transformation in healthcare, noting that CX innovation in healthcare would be smart to take cues from the creative process of artists. A key insight they shared was that digital transformation is not simply a technology issue, it’s about process and experimentation. Epstein noted that when it comes to innovation in both healthcare and art, “You can divide innovators into two camps — conceptual and experimental innovators.” They explained this categorization by discussing the artistic process of two incredible individuals from the art world: Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne. 

Picasso was one of the rare examples of an innovator who was almost entirely conceptual in his approach to art. He had a revolutionary concept inside his head, and he spent his career bringing this concept to his craft. Cézanne was very much the opposite. He spent his whole career experimenting with art. His early work is markedly traditional, but as he experimented and ”tinkered” with his artwork, a bold evolution occurred. Gladwell said that this is the approach that healthcare needs to understand and emulate. “Most innovation is similar to evolution, multiple discoveries occur because the problem was framed up for them. We don’t write about people that take sensible approaches … We need to lionize tinkering and protect it.” 

According to Epstein and Gladwell, healthcare innovation should focus on experimenting and tinkering, much like Cézanne’s approach to art. Given the incredible complexity and barriers found in healthcare, this model of questioning, experimenting and iterating will create the most impactful forms of innovation.

Innovators in healthcare transformation

Gladwell and Epstein concluded their conversation by emphasizing the fact that for meaningful and timely innovation to occur in healthcare, the industry must look outside of its traditional boundaries for inspiration and wisdom. Gladwell stated that an issue facing healthcare is that, “We aren’t asking the right questions from the very top, and that is a problem for innovation.” 

For healthcare to achieve the level of innovation found in other industries, particularly when it comes to CX, leaders need to bring in ideas and thinking from outside of the discipline. To illustrate this point, Epstein gave examples of how the legal and military industries achieved broad innovation in short time frames. He stated that “healthcare needs to connect to other disciplines in order to create innovation, keep your eye on the larger picture … In any industry, education, healthcare, etc., gains come from going outside your field.”

Ultimately, the message from Gladwell and Epstein is that digital transformation in healthcare requires questioning, experimentation and a free exchange of ideas between disciplines.