In 2020, the year of good vision for life, Optometry Australia is taking significant steps towards the profession’s future.
In writing this, I am inspired by a statement made by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg: “In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks”.
Taking risks of course, does not mean making decisions on a whim. Developing and implementing the right strategy in a world of constant disruption is crucial to taking control of the future and achieving success.
Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough
This is why Optometry Australia is taking the lead in ensuring members, and the sector broadly, reach their preferred future leading up to 2040 and beyond. Towards 2040 and beyond, we will assist everyone on the journey and we have some exciting initiatives planned this year to keep things moving.
The first is to work with our members to develop their skills to consider strategic risks and opportunities. We hope to build members’ capability to be alert to looming risks, have them learn to mitigate those risks, as well as grasp those risks and turn them into opportunities.
To achieve this outcome, members will be invited to attend a webcast in the coming months so that they can start this learning process. We will then conduct workshops across the country to dive a little deeper into risk identification techniques, which will help empower members to embrace risk necessary to create a strong future.
SERVICES, PROGRAMS AND SCOPE OF PRACTICE
Along the way, these workshops will enable us to gain a deeper understanding of what we need to do to support members as they navigate this rapidly changing world. What services and programs do we need to adopt or adapt to continue to provide maximum value? Do we have the right structure, the right resources and the right planning processes in place?
What our members tell us – not only through the workshops but also through our biennial member survey which will also take place this year – will make a strong contribution to our 2021–2024 strategic planning process.
Collaborating with all OA divisions in the development of our shared strategic plan ensures the programs we implement will align with members’ individual goals and aspirations, and more broadly, with the sector.
This next plan however, is perhaps even more imperative as it will build on the foundation that will create a sector – and an organisation – with the courage and resilience to embrace the risks and opportunities as we move towards 2040.
This year we also have activities planned that will take advantage of technological advances in order for members to be educated and informed in ways not seen in the Australian optometry sector before.
We are further evolving products and services to meet current and future needs that acknowledge members’ changing work and life conditions, and we are looking forward to sharing these innovations in the coming months.
We know that evolving our scope of practice is important to advancing the profession and ‘future proofing’ the sector, and next month a group of members will be exploring initiatives here and in New Zealand to advance and progress changes to scope in Australia.
In summary it may be 2020: the year of good vision for life, but for us, it is also the year of the future.
In closing, I also turn to Mark Zuckerberg for inspiration: “Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough”.
Lyn Brodie is the National CEO of Optometry Australia.
