Forty-five days ago those steaks looked just like every other cut in the cooler. Enzymes, time, and steady airflow did their quiet work until the moment you see in swipes 2 and 3. Last night we tasted the payoff while celebrating my wife’s birthday—and it reminded me why some upgrades in healthcare IT should be treated more like dry-aging than fast-food.
I meet leaders who pull go-live dates forward because “the board wants quick wins.” Yet the richest value—seamless hand-offs, clinician trust, measurable equity gains—only shows up after a workflow has time to breathe, refine and mature.
If you are weighing a rushed release against an extra cycle of user testing, consider the steak. Flavor compounds aren’t built in an afternoon, and neither is lasting digital transformation.
Quick exercise: grab one live initiative and ask, “What could an extra 30 days of purposeful aging unlock—risk mitigated, adoption lifted, data validated?” The difference may taste a lot like that first bite of rib-eye.
In the comments I’ve linked the blank CRT Worksheet I use to score Capacity, Risk and Timeline. Download it, run your numbers and see if your project needs extra aging.
Which project in your organization would benefit most from an intentional pause and refinement?
This content was originally posted on Linkedin.