How Failure Demand Keeps Us Stuck with John Mortimer episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 30, 2026 · 52 MIN

How Failure Demand Keeps Us Stuck with John Mortimer

from Shift: Conversations on Innovation and Improvement in Canadian Health Care

In this episode, I sit down with John Mortimer, a specialist in systemic service design and founder of Impro, to tackle a concept that is silently draining the resources and morale of our health care system: Failure Demand. John explains that much of the "spinning" felt by practitioners today—the feeling of running faster while staying in the same place—is the result of a system designed to manage the consequences of its own failures rather than meeting the actual needs of the person.If you have ever felt that you or your organization is only as helpful as the rules allow, this conversation offers ideas for finding traction in the spin and eliminating the invisible drain of failure demand.ResourcesJohn’s Videos on YouTube  Buurtzorg Model Human Learning Systems

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 30, 2026

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In this episode, I sit down with John Mortimer, a specialist in systemic service design and founder of Impro, to tackle a concept that is silently draining the resources and morale of our health care system: Failure Demand. John explains that much of the "spinning" felt by practitioners today—the feeling of running faster while staying in the same place—is the result of a system designed to manage the consequences of its own failures rather than meeting the actual needs of the person. If you ...

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How Failure Demand Keeps Us Stuck with John Mortimer

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This episode was published on April 30, 2026.

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