Archive for Storytelling
Health 2.0: the WellCentrix Philosophy
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a short webinar on the WellCentrix theory of healthcare IT and Health 2.0
The Powerful + Multifaceted Story That Is Temple Grandin
Posted by: | CommentsTemple Grandin is a cross-species hero. Her appearance at TED makes me wonder: what took them so long to invite her?
Her work with animals, particularly in the design of slaughterhouses, revolutionized the cattle industry. As an autistic, she is the living representation of what’s possible with what she calls “unique minds” – her passion is in direct opposition to the standardization that has strangled education in the US for decades.
The current economic landscape is driving school systems toward more standardization as budgets get slashed, particularly for the subjects that engage outlier minds: shop, art, music.
Einstein was likely an autistic-spectrum mind – probably Asperger Syndrome – so what does it mean for innovative thinking in our society that we’re taking non-standardized minds and forcing them down paths that will cut them off from their ability to think in new ways?
Sounds like the essence of cruelty. In fact, it’s intellectual slaughter. We’re forcing kids down chutes, prodding them toward the end of the track – in this case, a high school diploma, not a killing bolt to the forehead, but how many minds are killed by the process?
What can we do? Fight to keep visual and verbal arts in the curriculum for public schools, for one. Another would be to consider a 2nd or retirement career in the classroom, particularly if you’re a scientist or artist.
Be an innovative thinker yourself.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…
Health Care Storytelling
Posted by: | CommentsIn all the sturm und drang over the US health care system in the last couple of years – and the last many decades – one voice seems to be largely missing in the discussion.
We’ve heard from health care providers – hospitals, doctors, et al.
We’ve heard from insurance companies.
We’ve certainly heard from politicians.
We have not, however, really been hearing from patients, unless some disease sufferer with a story to tell to support the POV of a health care provider, an insurer, or a political position gets trotted to the microphone to tell his or her story.
As social media rises as the brave new communication platform for any and all global-village ideas and events, health care is starting, sloooooowly, to dip its toe into social networking as a tool to get their message out. What we have not seen, though, is a lot of listening, other than the usual suspects listening to (and yammering at) each other.
There are a number of community sites that have grown up around specific conditions and issues – Fran Drescher’s Cancer Schmancer community and Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG efforts around cancer spring to mind.
Microsoft has launched MyHealthInfo.com, and Google’s got Google Health.
Patients are out there: on Facebook, on Ning, on Twitter, and other online community sites like SparkPeople.com. However, less than 20% of doctors are currently using technology to manage their patients’ medical records – given that resistance to technology, combined with the strictures of HIPAA (which I swear must mean Health Insurance Paying All Attorneys), it’s easy to see why the health care industry seems to be MIA in the Web 2.0 world.
One of the reasons cited by health care providers for not using web tools to communicate with their patients is privacy concerns. That is a legitimate concern, but I think it’s being used as a smokescreen – there are plenty of security apps and protocols available that would allow a dialogue between doctors and patients without having the conversation become Twitter status updates.
How refreshing, even revolutionary, would it be to have a way to communicate with your doctor and his/her staff online? To log in, schedule an appointment, enter your blood sugar numbers or blood pressure, request a prescription refill, ask a question, get a referral, download your medical records.
The health care sector has been losing the trust of its customer base for a long time – gone are the days when doctors were looked at as elevated beings who knew way more than the average dude (dude, in this usage, is gender neutral).
Doctors can take some of the blame there, since they’re not batting 1.000 on calling out the bad apples in their bunch, and have, as a group, been acting as the supply-chain for the pharmaceutical industry more than is, um, healthy.
The pharma industry takes some heat on the trust gap, too, since they seem to be all about “ask your doctor” and not so much about “you’ll be able to afford this stuff”. And don’t even mention Celebrex or Vioxx…
These revolutionary web-enabled conversations would allow doctors and other health care professionals to start to build those one-on-one and one-on-many trust relationships that could actually bridge that trust gap. Even help us understand, manage, and maintain our health.
Patients need to take the lead here, I believe, because left to their own devices doctors, hospitals, insurers, and politicians will continue to talk at each other, and not listen to the ultimate consumer of health care: the patient.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Looking for the Union Label in the 21st Century
Posted by: | CommentsAmerican, going against the tide of US carriers outsourcing aircraft maintenance to hangers in Mexico and Central America, has discovered a new partner in reducing costs and creating efficiencies: their own mechanics’ union, Transport Workers Local 514.
The only US airline that has not sent its jets to foreign hangars is American – they’ve continued to send them to their maintenance hangers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Wade Goodwyn at NPR told this story on the air on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
American’s maintenance crews have reduced the time an MD-80 spends in the hanger on what’s called a “heavy check” from 22 days to 12. Just in case you’re thinking that means they threw almost 1,000 people at the job, they didn’t. They’ve reduced the heavy-check crew from 700 to just over 300.
Good work, less time, fewer man-hours. Sounds like a business plan instead of a union work-rule, doesn’t it? Which is what gives me hope that trades unions in this country might enjoy a renaissance, with the highly educated and skilled workforce we still have in the US using those smarts and skills to create, and keep, good work for themselves.
What I love about the American Airlines story is this: it looks like there are still smart people in unions. I’ve wondered what had happened to the movement that fought so hard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to make factory, construction, and agricultural work fit for human beings. Trust me, kids – at that time, in this country, it wasn’t. Read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle if you have any questions.
The members of TW Local 514 have seen what’s happened to the rest of the wrench brigade in the US, who until the ’80s saw regular increases in wages along with a strong union membership base. The wasteland that is the skilled labor market in this country has virtual tumbleweeds rolling slowly down its dusty main streets – most of their jobs have been moved offshore to factories and machine shops where a good daily wage is, at best, one-quarter of what it is here.
But I digress. In my view, most unions had become anachronisms by the mid-20th century, after becoming fiefdoms for their leadership and what amounted to private wage-setting clubs for their members. If you disagree with me, I have two words for you: Jimmy Hoffa.
This story gives me hope that, with all the amazing new product ideas being born in basements, labs, garages, and corner suites across this country, there is likely enough sense between the ears of the skilled labor pool to want to bring those ideas to life. To look at what’s happening today as an investment in tomorrow, and probably next week, too.
A girl can hope. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Last Pitch Standing: Comedy Writing Tips for Speakers
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been doing the short-form intro version of my “Last Pitch Standing” workshop pretty frequently of late.
Here are PDFs of the two handouts – they can get you started on opening your comedy writing chakras. If you’d like some personal coaching, you know who to call!
MightyCaseyMedia’s Comedy Writing Tips
Mighty Casey Media comedy worksheet
Make ‘em laugh!
Another Story for Job Seekers
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the things I most enjoy doing is talking to groups of people who are looking for a new customer.
They call it “looking for a job”, I think customer and employer are synonyms – don’t you?
Here’s another share of my take on personal branding and social media for those looking for their next customer – and remember, it might be worth it to open up your entrepreneurial chakras. Think B-I-Z, not just J-O-B.
2009 Personal Branding + Social Media
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…
