Too often, we look at the new thing and demand to know how it supports the old thing. Perhaps, though, the question is, how does the new thing allow us to think skinnier.
– Seth Godin

Musicians once performed for a living. Enter technology. Step one saw improving profits with amplification. Step two triggered the shift where artists – and a whole industry – made money by recording and selling music. Step three brought the recording industry to its knees. Today musicians make their money by performing.

So far in health care, the same high-tech solutions and specialization resources that ‘thinned’ other industries have mostly contributed to systems and cost ‘growth.’ This is unsustainable, and if the world of music offers any parallels, it is going to change. Like anyone facing an unsustainable and uncertain future, we have a choice: an extended process that’s disruptive and damaging to Arizona’s people, infrastructure and economy, or the purposeful emergence of Arizona as an innovative leader in quality and effectiveness. Given those options, it’s time to think skinnier now.