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The new normal is Business Unusual.
A world where learning matters more than knowing.
business unusual
business unusual
The familiar rhythms of business as usual may no longer serve us.
Perhaps the new normal is Business Unusual. A world where learning matters more than knowing. Where momentum matters more than mastery. Where boldness increasingly beats certainty.
The rulebook for who gets to innovate has changed too.
If you're not learning fast, adapting faster, and building in motion, you may already be behind.
Welcome to Business Unusual.
Healthcare is being re-coded in real time.
So the question is — are you upgrading your operating system, or are you still running on legacy logic?
Take the Business Unusual pulse check:
1️⃣ Is boldness your default, or does incrementalism rule?
2️⃣ Is momentum your energy, or are you waiting for 100% certainty before you act?
3️⃣ Is learning your leap-frog move, or is “today’s leadership” your comfort zone?
4️⃣ Are you rewarding failure, or only immediate success?
5️⃣ Are you democratizing innovation, or quietly gatekeeping it?
6️⃣ Are you pacing change to the cultural heartbeat, or sprinting without rhythm?
If you hesitated on any of these, keep reading.
Welcome to healthcare’s digital dawn — a period where the old business-as-usual playbook, built for predictability and incremental gains, simply can’t keep up. Maybe the new normal is business unusual. Because if you’re not learning fast, adapting faster, and building in motion, you may already be behind.
The rulebook for who gets to innovate? It’s changed too. Your patients, clinicians, and partners — they’re no longer spectators. They’re innovators, competitors, and co-creators.
This moment is testing us all. That’s why I launched the Dose of Innovation Series — to explore the ideas, emerging technologies, and transformational shifts redefining healthcare. The accompanying Dose Response Conversations bring it to life through candid discussions with bold voices shaping healthcare’s future.
In my first three Dose Response Conversations, a recurring tension point emerged: Healthcare leaders can see digital disruption is “here,” but are struggling to respond with speed and purpose.
🩸 Dr. Shunitra Chandra Segran calls today’s mood a “restlessness.”
🩸 Dr. Omar Manejwala describes it as “healthcare is digitally bradycardic … but society is moving at a tachycardic pace. That’s the tension.”
🩸 Patrick Nowlan warned of a “disorientation … you can’t just plug in a future vision and expect it to run.”
These are the ectopic beats of business unusual. The challenge for leaders is how to respond.
1️⃣ Is boldness your default — or does incrementalism still rule?
In a business-as-usual world, incrementalism felt responsible. Tweak, test, improve. Rinse, repeat. But in a business-unusual world — where change is exponential — incrementalism becomes a liability: the illusion of progress while standing still.
When I asked Omar Manejwala MD — psychiatrist, author, and Chief Medical Officer at Dario — his contraindication, he didn’t hesitate.
“Incrementalism,” he said.
And what’s driving this?
“Habits are powerful — neurologically, culturally, emotionally. Our brains crave homeostasis.”
That craving for predictability worked when change came in decades. But today, it comes in quarters. That means we need more than new skillsets and mindsets. We need what I call the boldset — the ability to move when others freeze.
And here was Omar’s warning shot:
“The opposite of learning isn’t ignorance — it’s arrogance. And arrogance masquerades as certainty.”
Certainty feels safe. But boldness is what creates movement. This isn’t a call for reckless reinvention. It’s a challenge to stop letting 1% tweaks prevent 100% transformations.
Are you ready to make boldness your default?
2️⃣ Is momentum your energy — or are you still waiting for 100% certainty before you move?
Business-as-usual taught us to wait until everything was aligned — the data was clean, the standard operating procedures clearly defined, the consensus was full. But in business-unusual? That’s the mindset that gets you left behind.
Consider this:
🩸 Bain reports ~60% of HCPs already use generative AI tools, and 70% of patients say they’re researching treatment options with them.
🩸 BCG predicts “Generative AI is projected to grow faster in healthcare than any other sector.”
🩸 McKinsey foresees “Up to 95% of life science roles may have agentic teammates… We expect this shift to free up 25–40% of enterprise capacity.”
In my Dose Response conversation with Patrick Nowlan, he shared his unique perspective contrasting East and West:
“China’s innovation mantra is ‘Ship it at 60%, test, iterate.’ The Western mindset? ‘Perfect it before you launch.’”
Patrick was describing the importance of designing and iterating in real time. Build as you go. Learn while moving.
Because in this period of business unusual, by the time you have a perfect plan, it may already be out of date.
Are you ready to make momentum your default?
3️⃣Is learning your path to leapfrogging — or is today’s leadership your comfort zone?
In a world that won’t stop moving, learning can’t be an afterthought. In business-unusual, current success is no guarantee of future relevance.
In cycling, the rider just behind the leader saves energy in the slipstream — observing everything and choosing the right time to leapfrog ahead.
In healthcare, it’s the same. During COVID-19, Teladoc surged ahead — nearly doubling its U.S. telehealth market share and growing revenue from $553M to almost $2B in two years. But the race didn’t stop there. Competitors watched closely, spotted gaps, and adapted fast. EHR vendors embedded virtual care. Amwell tightened system partnerships. Doximity entered with a physician-first model.
The takeaway? You don’t have to start in front to finish there.
But in business-unusual times, you do need to be in the race — and ready to move when the curve shifts.
Are you ready to make learning your path to leapfrogging?
4️⃣ Are you rewarding failure — or only immediate success?
Many organizations love the idea of innovation… until something fails. But in a business-unusual world, the absence of failure might not be a sign of excellence — it might be a sign you’ve plateaued your learning curve.
Omar Manejwala MD called it out:
“Failure shouldn’t be punished; it should be expected and leveraged. Big organizations often punish failure — which locks them into predictability. And right now? We need to embrace the unexpected and lift our ambition of what is possible. Organizations that cling to predictability are at risk of being left behind.”
When curiosity flatlines, so does progress. In business-unusual, failure isn’t the opposite of success — it’s the launchpad for innovation.
Are you ready to reward failure?
5️⃣ Are you democratizing innovation — or quietly gatekeeping it?
Innovation is no longer the sole domain of R&D labs or executive boards. With tools like generative AI in the hands of millions, clinicians, patients, and partners are solving problems and creating value in real time.
In business-unusual, management gates don’t just slow things down — they shut people out. Leaders must embrace this shift — empowering experimentation, scaling what works, and being more open-minded that the best ideas can come from anywhere.
Dr. Shunitra Chandra Segran framed it perfectly:
“It’s about bringing people along — and deploying new technologies in ways that help teams be at their best more often.”
That’s the shift. AI shouldn’t replace human intelligence. It should amplify it.
The question isn’t whether you’re innovating — it’s who gets to participate.
The best ideas come from the edges — where friction is real, urgency is high, and the stakes are personal. The leaders who unlock those voices — and give them tools, trust, and room to test — are the ones who build momentum that actually sticks.
Are you ready to democratize innovation?
6️⃣ Are you pacing change to the cultural heartbeat, or sprinting without rhythm?
Around innovation, we talk a lot about ambition and acceleration. But here’s the leadership blind spot: if your team can’t absorb the change, it doesn’t matter how good your strategy is.
In my Dose Response conversation, Patrick Nowlin called it out:
“Innovation is like a potent therapy — dosage, timing, and combination with other agents matter.”
You can’t drop a future vision into an unprepared system and expect it to run smoothly. Change doesn’t scale because it’s bold. It scales because it’s believable and connected to purpose.
Patrick has more:
“Get it right, and you energize a team to move toward a bold future. Get it wrong, and you risk burnout or resistance.”
So what’s the right prescription?
“Leaders who match ambition with a pragmatic roadmap — those thousand baby steps — are the ones who actually deliver transformation,” says Patrick.
Are you ready to dose innovation wisely, intentionally, and with the rhythm your teams can run with?
Final Dose
So how did you score on the Business Unusual test? ChatGPT went from passing (~60%) to mastering (~90%) the US Medical Licensing Exam in under three years. That’s what happens when learning and boldness move in sync.
And when I asked my Dose Response guests what they think leaders should be asking right now, here’s what they said:
🩸 Patrick Nowlan: “Where will exponential change hit my world — and what can I do today to shape it?”
🩸 Omar Manejwala: “What part of my value could be replaced by a kid in a basement with Gen AI?”
🩸 Shunitra Chandra Segran: “What’s your play to win? Choose your lane. Own it. Invest in it. Be stubborn on vision, flexible on journey.”
These aren’t comfortable questions. They’re not meant to be.
Because in healthcare’s business-unusual era, restlessness is your friend.
alex condoleon
alex condoleon
FOUNDER, DOSE OF INNOVATION
Behind Dose of Innovation is Alex Condoleon, a healthcare executive, innovator, and lifelong student of leadership, innovation, and change.
Through articles, frameworks, and Dose Response conversations, Alex explores the ideas, emerging technologies, and transformational shifts reshaping healthcare—translating complex trends into practical insights for leaders navigating an increasingly dynamic world.
His work sits at the intersection of healthcare, technology, leadership, and human behavior, with a particular focus on helping organizations move from possibility to adoption and from innovation to impact.
Because we're still in Phase I.
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