Best Practices Are Lying to You
Let's Reset Our Understanding of Systems - 25 Minute Read
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Best practices sound reassuring.
They promise certainty, control, and proven answers.
They also fail—quietly and consistently.
After 47 years spanning Wall Street, healthcare, technology, and organizational leadership, Doug Sparks has seen the same patterns repeat across industries: smart people, good intentions, and systems that still don’t work the way they’re supposed to.
This book explains why.
Not with theory.
Not with jargon.
And definitely not with preaching.
Best Practices Are Lying to You explores how real systems behave once incentives, scale, complexity, and human behavior enter the picture. It’s a practical, conversational guide to understanding why the “right” solution so often produces the wrong result—and what actually makes systems resilient.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- Why incentives shape behavior more than mission statements ever will
- Why technology amplifies problems before it fixes them
- Why healthcare, finance, and organizations fail in surprisingly similar ways
- Why designing for real humans beats designing for ideal ones
- Why control feels good—and usually backfires
Written with clarity, humility, and a touch of humor, this book is for leaders, professionals, clinicians, technologists, and anyone who has ever wondered why doing everything “right” still didn’t work.
If you’ve felt the friction but couldn’t quite name it, this book will feel uncomfortably familiar—in the best possible way.
Healthcare Sectors SurThrival Guide
How Should 20 Sectors of Healthcare Respond? - 20 Minute Read
Best Practices Are Lying exposed the myth.
SurThrival explains why execution fails — and what finally works. (Link)
Healthcare doesn’t fail because it lacks intelligence, data, or technology.
It fails because systems stop short of execution.
Most organizations believe they are:
• Coordinating care
• Managing risk
• Closing compliance gaps
• Using AI effectively
They are not.
They are observing, reporting, and discussing — while penalties, denials, and missed care accumulate invisibly.
SurThrival documents what happens when execution finally replaces observation.
Written by the team that helped architect the compliance grading systems used by CMS and payers, this book draws hard lines between:
• Identification vs. action
• Reporting vs. completion
• Programs vs. systems
• AI that advises vs. AI that executes
This is not a theory.
It is a field guide to what works when medical necessity is acted upon automatically, continuously, and audibly — without workflow change.
If Best Practices Are Lying helped you see the problem,
SurThrival shows you why it persists — and how it ends.
Your Healthcare Escape Hatch
A Consumer Guide to Access & Care - 20 Minute Read
How Control of Your Health Records Restores Choice, Access, and Protection
Healthcare feels harder than it should—not because medicine isn’t advanced, but because your information doesn’t follow you.
Appointments stall. Transitions break down. You repeat your story again and again. And when something important doesn’t happen, there’s often no warning—just silence.
This book explains why.
For the first time in history, consumers and patients can now access and control their own health records in a way that allows care to remain continuous—across providers, systems, locations, and life changes.
This is not a medical guide, and it does not replace professional care.
It is a clarity guide—so you can understand what has been missing from healthcare and why regaining control of your records changes everything.
Inside, you’ll discover:
- Why insurance is not the same as access
- Why your records never follow you—and why that was intentional
- Why the most dangerous moments in healthcare are often quiet ones
- How subscription care restores continuity without replacing insurance
- Why mental health reveals system cracks first
- What you can do before you need care, not during a crisis
This book is written for real life—not emergencies, not policy debates, and not perfect scenarios.
Whether you are healthy, managing ongoing care, navigating change, or simply preparing for the future, Your Healthcare Escape Hatch helps you reduce friction, restore continuity, and protect yourself and your family when it matters most.