When to kill an idea

Early this morning, I had to get a minor surgery. No big deal, everything's fine (thanks for asking).

What was interesting, though, is what I overheard.

I was waiting in pre-op for about 2 hours. I was separated from other patients only by those flimsy curtains they pull between the beds.

To my right, I overheard this conversation:

Physician Assistant: Do you use any recreational drugs?
Patient: Yes, marijuana.
Physician Assistant: When was the last time?
Patient: Yesterday morning.

Hmmm...

To my left? This:

Nurse: What are we doing for you today?
Patient: A Hemorrhoidectomy.

Ouch...

I'm quite sure neither person wanted me listening in on these or any of their other personal medical history. Thank God for the curtain, because I was embarrassed - I can't imagine how they must have felt.

So this was just 30 minutes or so after I signed a form stating that I understood their HIPAA practices... I'm no expert, but part of HIPAA protects the privacy of people's personal health information. So how is it doing that in this scenario?

This is a great example of a well intentioned idea that, in execution, is not having an impact. Mountains of paperwork have been introduced to protect people's privacy, and still I can overhear the medical history of everyone around me (and they can hear mine). What's the point?

This happens in businesses all the time.

It's certainly happened to me. You come up with a great idea. You get buy in. Then you implement it, only to find that no one uses it. Or no one gets value out of it. Or it doesn't work in practice as well as in theory.

But you keep trying. And making people do it. Because, hey, it's a great idea! And you really want it to work!

Pretty soon, it's just useless paperwork.

Lesson? Don't be afraid to kill great theories that suck in practice, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears went into them up front.