Active Risk Takers (ARTists) are a form of intrapreneur, and need to be appreciated within the organization. They become the leaders, who control the daily operations. Here are a few ideas about how to become one:

 Risk From Strength
The comfort level must be right, especially if you are not a frequent risk taker. Start in areas you know well, because you'll be armed with better information. Also, it is wisest to take risks only in a practice that won't penalize you for doing so, the one whose leadership recognizes that you must be moving to stumble.

 Gather Information Wisely
You never know when you have enough data, nor can you be sure that what you have is correct. It is vital to learn the limits of information. It doesn't always guarantee success. While you must look before you leap, you must eventually stop looking and go for it.

 Be Sensitive to Timing
There are no formulas to determine when to act. It is almost a gut-level decision. Remember, taking a risk does not always mean moving forward. It may mean taking an idea back into further development, rather than forcing it onto clients. The flip-side is equally scary. You might miss your window of opportunity.

 Be Flexible
Conditions change. If you are determined to stick with your original plan no matter what, you are not gutsy, you're stupid. Remember the new Coke® and Coke Classic® backlash that allowed Coca-Cola® to capture a new market by being flexible.

 Always Work From Within
The successful intrapreneur works from inside the group, gathering affiliations and associations for later team support strength. You realize that there are three basic volunteer motivators: affiliation, strength, and recognition. It is important to understand what excites someone, when you are trying to recruit support.

 Fail Successfully
While your goal in risk taking is success, you won't always achieve it. To gain positive benefits from failure, you must learn from each mistake and avoid taking the failure personally. Always fully face failure and take the blame. Concurrently, always share the credit with supporters on the team.

All this may make the process of intrapreneurship and "risk taking" sound to many as a lot like gambling. However, as Daniel Kehrer said in Doing Business Boldly, "In gambling, money just moves around. Nothing is created." Beware of success. It tends to destroy the entrepreneurial spirit. Only two companies, highlighted as examples of operational excellence in Tom Peter's breakthrough text, In Search of Excellence, were still quality benchmarks ten years later. Bureaucracy and complacency replace the zeal of innovation, public relations replaces marketing, and ideas have to be sold so many times that they become out-of-date before implementation. If everybody gets to add their two cents to a project idea, it becomes loaded down with weight that slows the wheels of progress and creativity, and it retreats in exhaustion.

Successful healthcare systems provide the vision, push innovation, and allow room for intrapreneurs to breathe. Develop a performance planning system that does more than reinforce sameness and retrospective apprehension. If they share risks, they should share the rewards, called gain-sharing. Don't tell them to write the idea down for your decision. Brainstorm with them and get the excitement level up. Listen more than talk. Allow creative license. Trust in your staff. Your clients and patients do. Balance your life, and allow those around you to balance theirs.

Answer the following questions and be as honest as you can.

Fifteen questions. Were they all rated as proactive for change? Did you really think about your answers? If you want to build innovation and creativity into your practice culture, creating an environment that allows and promotes the process of intrapreneurship and "risk taking", have you accepted that it is not only your brain that is needed? In team-based veterinary healthcare delivery, all brains must be nurtured at all times. Try these three simple "application scenarios", and truthfully ask yourself, "Have I actually done this in practice?" If so, "Why?" And if I haven't, "Why not?"

 Are you ready to ask a client, who is complaining about a staff member encounter, "Which of my new policies have you upset"

 When someone comes in late, are you ready to ask, "Is everything okay?" as your first words, rather than start a win-lose attack of "Why are you late?"

 When a staff member fails to comply to expected procedures, are you willing to allow the practice manager or administrator to handle the matter, asking the appropriate zone coordinator, "What level of competency training has she received to date?"

By now, some of you are thinking, "This dude sure ain't thinking normal!!!"