What is Muscle Memory?

Dear Valued Associates:

Your opponent on the tennis court blisters a perfect first serve. Without thinking, you pivot slightly, keep your wrist locked and shoot a cross-court backhand winner over the net. Point, set, match. Though your winning shot was hit during the game, your victory came from untold hours spent practicing backhand service returns - you won because of muscle memory.

Muscle memory is the ability for you to react to any situation 100% correctly - every single time. Coaches say that the natural talent of a player, regardless of sport, accounts for roughly 30% of their success, the remaining 70% results from their discipline to practice and commitment to develop muscle memory. That’s why Venus and Serena Williams blast hundreds of serves every day. It’s why Tiger Woods hits thousands of golf balls every week. And it’s why major league baseball players, after spending a lifetime in the sport, still take their swings in the batting cage during every practice.

Now you might be asking yourself as you read this “I can understand why muscle memory is important in sports, but what does it have to do with health care staffing?”

My answer: ”Everything.”

If we are to continue our leadership position as the fastest growing health care staffing company in the world, we need to constantly improve our skills and minimize variation in everything we do. We need to treat our customers the same in Buffalo as we do in Seattle. In San Francisco, as we do in Charleston. In Boston, as we do in Orlando. We must make certain that we live our core values everyday, both when it’s convenient and when it’s not. We can never forget that we always seek to understand, before asking to be understood. In short, we must passionately commit to our own form of muscle memory, or as we call it, The Supplemental Way.

Where does SHC muscle memory begin? Simple, with TRM.

TRM is much more than a simple front office system - it is a reflection of our strategy as an organization and proof of our commitment to execute that strategy. It is a tool, designed to help us build stronger relationships, provide consistent service company-wide and ensure that no potential customer, client or talent, ever falls through the cracks. But, just as is true of any athlete, it is only as effective as we are dedicated to creating muscle memory around it. We must use it every day. We must be obsessive about entering every contact, documenting every call, entering every application.

Is TRM perfect? No, and it never will be. But, it is good and will continue to get better as we make enhancements based on usage experience. That is what continuous improvement is all about. That is what winners do.

There is an old saying: “The difference between the successful person and the unsuccessful person is this, the successful person is in the habit of doing things the unsuccessful person doesn’t do.” Habit forms muscle memory.

The great thing about that statement is that I can take out the word person and replace it with athlete or parent or recruiter or payroll manager or CEO. It doesn’t matter - the statement still works. We must create a habit of using TRM. There can be no excuses. There can be no exceptions. In the end, it is about improving as an organization and better serving our customers’ and that ladies and gentleman, is The Supplemental Way.

Sincerely,

Mike Jacoutot
President and CEO
Supplemental Health Care