At the latest NextGen Users Group Meeting in DC, I saw examples everywhere of storytelling par excellence.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich and Vermont Governor Howard Dean sprinkled stories of constituents and personal experiences throughout their keynote addresses, as they made their respective (and mostly complementary) points on the healthcare reform debate.
The first day’s keynote speakers, Gene Kranz of Mission Control and Commander Jim Lowell from Apollo 13, were all about storytelling. 99% of their stage time was a recounting of details of raw ingenuity and failure truly not being an option — and 45 minutes into the session, folks were still attentive enough to laugh and groan in all the right places.
It’s like we’re hardwired to put everything aside and sit back on our haunches, rubbing our hands together in anticipation, when the village storyteller steps forward and clears his throat.
When the rest of the tribe is watching, what story are you telling with your approach to healthcare IT?
Story? I Need A Story?
Actually, you’ve already got one, whether you like it or not.
And if you haven’t devoted any effort into crafting it the way you’d like to be known, your “audience” — your patients, your colleagues, your physicians or IT personnel — has already made one up for you, to tag you in their own minds.
I was a co-presenter at the conference, and this was my primary contribution to the talk. Turning Doctors Into Raving EHR Fans was the topic, and there were action items aplenty. Managing expectations, spiffying up your support crew, soliciting physician input, using surveying and video producing tools to uncover and deliver wanted training — these are necessary and key items that any successful EHR rollout must have.
But in order to be ranked “highly satisfactory,” an organization needs to deliver more. A healthcare IT group needs to convey a key story in every support call it takes, every instructional video it produces, every sit-down chit chat it has with a displeased doctor.
The content of that story is entirely up to you. It can be “You’re The Center Of Our Existence,” “We Value You,” or “We’re Giving You Our Best, Take It Or Leave It.”
The important thing is that whatever that story is, you consistently and believably convey it.
But I Do Already
I would respectfully submit that if you’re an organization and not devoting quantifiable time and budgeted dollars to marketing — or if you’re a physician and not studying and discussing how your patients and colleagues perceive your office — you are totally not involved in crafting and communicating your message. And since thinking in terms of stories is as natural as licking your chops, that implies that other folks are making up your story for you.
You may be doing your best as a phone staffer doing tech support. But if you’re swamped with the call volume, and 8% of your callers hang up before you get to them, what kind of story are they hanging up with?
You may be coding your heart out as a local IT programmer, doing mods up the wazoo of the vendor’s EHR. But if you repeatedly tell your docs, “Sorry, can’t do that, that’s the vendor’s fault,” what message are they walking away with (hint: rhymes with “PAIL,”, starts with “F”).
You may be keeping long lists of EHR complaints as a busy doctor, and yelling regularly at your local phone support. But if you never take the time to attend training sessions, or to learn the difference between what’s possible and what’s improbable given the limitations of your support team, what story are you screaming at them?
Can you really afford to have other folks define your story for you?
There Are Exceptions, But Precious Few
Actions do speak louder than words if you’re not careful. But if you tell your story right, your message can mitigate your goofs.
Case in point: iPhones and Starbucks.
Nearly everyone with a smartphone at the UGM had a Blackberry; I counted something like a 5:1 ratio of Blackberries to iPhones. But try impressing an iPhone user (like myself) with those stats. iPhones = Apple Computing = innovative + fun + company that appreciates my cool, quirky, and poetic approach to life.
But doesn’t Apple’s iPhoto app have some glitches, like the crossfade between slideshow songs not working in the most annoying way? Doesn’t the iPhone’s lack of a tactile keyboard mean lots of texting errors? Well, yes.
Yes, But…
What about Starbucks? I chat with a barrista several times a week, and their coffee and snacks are fine.
But is their $5 grande espresso whatever truly 5 times better than the $1 coffee you get at Cuppa Joe’s? Well, no.
No, But…
But I’m not buying just a smartphone or a cup of coffee. I’m buying entry into an experience — an experience so supportive of my worldview that I’m willing to overlook certain deficiencies. Like the teacher’s pet: once they were the darlings (great students, and they so totally get what I’m trying to teach), they pretty much stayed the darlings, even if they came to class late once in a while.
And you had better believe that those customer experiences were crafted with great, corporate levels of care. Those experiences — those stories — are what are really being sold.
You can’t feel highly satisfied with a basic product or service. Only a story — a message, a concept, an ideal — can do that.
So What’s This Got To Do With Me?
Remember that little healthcare reform topic that formed the core of keynote address #2? With Gingrich and Dean as the co-speakers?
Both politicians used storytelling to generate more thought and buzz for their missions. Without even trying hard, they created partisan applause and murmured mmm-hmms at appropriate places throughout their talks. Agreement and zeal. Doctors, IT folk, and office managers are no less vulnerable to the Gather ‘Round The Fire reflex than anybody else.
Telling a story is one of the main tools of effective copywriting, but as Seth Godin points out, it’s absolutely central to generating energy and enthusiasm for your mission.
Take advantage of that reflex. Get folks to pay attention. And as they sashay forward along the story’s glide path, guide them into the berth that you’ve prepared for them, or womp them with the eye-opener that shakes them out of their complacency.
