Use your X factor to establish awareness and control

Crunch time.

High noon.

The moment of truth.

We all face critical times – in both our personal and work lives. To manage these situations successfully, we need to be aware and in control.

Aware and in control of our minds, our emotions, and even our breathing.

But how do we establish this kind of awareness and control at an organizational level? Especially when confronted by a serious threat to business as usual. For example, the cancellation of HIMSS20, which Hyland fully supports, has had a major impact on the healthcare industry.

The Right Tech Gives you Awareness

To respond correctly, even at an organizational level, we need to start with ourselves. For advice, I turned to someone who’s an expert in self-control: Xander Schauffele, professional golfer and Hyland brand ambassador.

“When it comes to being in touch and aware of what my body is doing,” Xander recently told Golf Digest, “I use a different strategy than most professional golf players and performance coaches. They believe ‘going blank’ is the goal when you’re under pressure.”

Not me. I want to be aware.

Same for Xander.

“Awareness means you can be more in control, instead of letting the situation carry you along,” he said. “For example, I actively monitor my pulse when I play, because an increased heartbeat is usually the first indication that you’re feeling more pressure. As tension starts to build, it translates into a faster heart rate.”

These days, there are many ways to monitor your heart rate. There are smart watches, fitness trackers, or you can even go old school and do it manually.

But what happens inside your organization when its heart starts to race?

Are you able to take its pulse?

Can you control what’s happening by slowing things down or speeding things up?

The Right Tech Gives you Control

“Knowing when your heart starts to race means you can take steps to deal with it. I do that with a breathing technique that slows things down,” said Xander. “Focusing on how you breathe also gives you a process to occupy your mind, making it harder to dwell on things that would make you more nervous.”

We all make better decisions when we’re relaxed. So if you’re looking for increased awareness and control at an organizational level, visibility into your processes and systems is a must.

Especially in the healthcare industry, as it faces a global emergency.

The Right Tech Gives you an X Factor

It’s time for us all to take control. To do so, we need to be able to see the entire landscape. To establish awareness.

Which makes me think of last weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, when I watched Xander practice for two hours. He logged and graphed everything he did. That’s a big part of the reason why he’s currently ranked as the No. 12 player in the world.

And data insight is his X factor.

At the driving range, he used his Trackman to record all of his swing and ball-flight data. Once he got to the course, he and his caddy Austin Kaiser leveraged their yardage book, which contains all of the information, charts, and data they collected during their practice rounds.

Xander and Austin need this information at their fingertips, instantaneously, in order to make the right decisions, including the proper club and shot selections – high or low spin, trajectory, etc. Especially during crunch time.

It’s just like physicians and nurses need the proper data and documentation of and about their patients. That’s why the 20 best hospitals in the world all chose Hyland Healthcare.

We allow them to see all the data about their patients they need to make the most-informed decisions, ultimately improving patient care. We also give them the ability to increase visibility into their content and processes, turning information into awareness, awareness into control, and control into results.

The ability to monitor, report on, and then optimize your key processes is crucial to continuous improvement and success. Without it, you might as well go blank.

And in professional sports, business, or healthcare, blank is not the goal.

Ever.