An Innovative Flop

Changes or disruption in our external environment often spark opportunities for innovation, you just need the eyes to see these opportunities. Like Dick Fosbury, for example.

Dick who?

Dick Fosbury was a lanky kid from Oregon who was a below-average high jumper. Like everyone else, before the 1960’s, Dick was trained to clear the high-jump bar either by a scissor-kick method (feet first), the straddle method (also feet first), or the belly role (belly first). The problem was, Dick wasn’t very good at any of those traditional methods.

As soft landing mats began to be produced for belly role jumpers in the 60s, Dick began experimenting with a method where he would jump over the bar with his back to the bar, face to the sky, and kick his feet over as he cleared the bar, landing on the mat flat on his back!

Yes, you know what this looks like, because it’s the way virtually every competitive high-jumper jumps today. This technique that Dick invented is famously known as the “Fosbury Flop”.

By 1968, Dick had perfected his technique, which led to him winning the 1968 NCAA Championship, as well as a Gold Medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. He set a new Olympic record of 7 Feet, 4.25 inches, and forever changed the trajectory of an entire sport!

Throughout his career, people mocked Dick, criticized his technique, and one US Olympic team coach said that the Fosbury Flop would, “wipe out an entire generation of high jumpers because they will all have broken necks”. But of course, now we know what actually happened. Within a decade, nearly every single competitive high-jumper in the world was using the Fosbury Flop method.

The Fosbury Flop is an example of how a change in an external environment (the creation of soft landing mats) allowed for a new, innovative approach to emerge in the sport. This technique not only revolutionized the sport, it took an old, antiquated style, modernized it, and made it more efficient and competitive. Dick Fosbury couldn’t beat his own high school teammates with the scissor kick, or the belly role, but he beat them all with his innovative approach.

I believe we are in the midst of another moment of opportunity right now, in healthcare benefits. Multiple factors are forcing disruption in healthcare’s external environment (pricing failure, lack of transparency, COVID-19), and creating a wealth of opportunities – for those with the eyes to see them.

Businesses should be asking, “How can we leverage these opportunities to create innovative solutions in our organization?” More simply put…..what can we do to lower our costs without gutting our benefit plans? The answer is seizing these opportunities while they present themselves, just like Dick Fosbury did.

But Dick Fosbury didn’t just “think up” a new technique, he didn’t just “study it”……he implemented it, and then perfected it. Then he won a gold medal.

Spend some time thinking about what’s changing in healthcare and employee benefits, and how it is impacting your financial strength, your operational strength, your ability to attract and keep top talent, etc. Then I want you to remember this story, and picture Dick Fosbury leaping back first, face to the sky, kicking his feet as he glides over the bar, winning a gold medal while the world laughed.