The Ideal Story: Tips, Tricks and “How-to”
All improvements begin with a story. Each patient, family and employee that comes through your organization has a story to tell…and the stories of these individuals add up to your organization’s culture. If you want to improve the culture, and the experiences that occur within it, the Ideal Story activity is one co-design tool you should use.
Writing a story can feel overwhelming, especially when it’s tasked to a team. This article will give you one step-by-step approach along with helpful tips and tricks. But just as stories and experiences differ, so do approaches to the Ideal Story activity. Feel free to use what fits for your team or change the approach as necessary. Just keep your mission and ground rules in mind, then tap into your team’s creativity and let the inspiration come!
Your mission:
Write the story of the ideal care experience.
Don’t work in a direct care setting? The Ideal Story activity will still work for your team. Write about an education experience, an employment experience or a volunteer experience. The key is to write the story of what is ideal.
The ground rules:
Write from the point of view of the patient, client or customer.
Imagine an experience free from barriers, restrictions and limitations. Truly “blue sky thinking.”
Don’t worry about sounding professional or technical. Write a story. Create a narrative that shows what it’s like to truly walk through an experience.
How to get started writing:
As a team, divide your experience into logical “segments.”
Think like a patient…segments are often things like check-in, waiting, meeting with the doctor, etc.
Divide your team into pairs or small groups. Assign one or two segments to each group.
Tell your groups the ground rules above and let them get started.
Give a time limit - 20 minutes usually works well.
If the creative energy is strong and groups need more time, extend it by 5 or 10 minutes.
When the time is up, groups should stop writing and come back together to start constructing the complete Ideal Story.
How to build the complete Ideal Story:
Gather what you’ll need.
When all groups are finished writing their ideal segments, bring the groups back together. Groups will share their stories “in order.” While each group reads their narrative, a facilitator will be responsible for writing down key words, themes and ideas in a spot that can be seen by the entire team (dry-erase board, shared screen, poster board, etc.). Encourage participation and feedback. When the small groups have finished reading their segments, have someone collect all of the stories so they can be typed and saved.
Get ready for the lightbulb moments.
Get ready to hear groups calling out, “We had that, too!” What your team will quickly find is that many of them share ideals. The energy will build as they discover consistent themes and ideas that develop organically throughout the story. These commonalities will turn into improvement projects that are prioritized by order of urgency or importance.
How to use your story to create and prioritize projects.
As the facilitator is writing down key words and ideas, the larger team will begin to see themes emerge clearly. Safety. Communication. Quality. Workflow. As themes emerge, your team can further group the ideas into categories and begin to prioritize. Some projects will be quick wins, “low-hanging fruit” that can be accomplished easily and quickly.
Pro tip:
Tackle a few quick wins first. These projects will generate momentum and positive energy to keep your team engaged (and possibly engage others, as well).
Some projects will be heavier lifts that will require your team to gather baseline data, evaluate the current state and build multi-disciplinary teams. Don’t shy away from these projects. Use shadowing, “What Matters to You?” and Team Building to work toward your team’s vision of ideal care. The improvement process may not always be quick and easy, but there are PCVS tools to help you succeed.
Pro tip:
Use the PCVS Project Plan to keep current, future and completed projects organized. The PCVS Project Plan helps you align your projects with unit, facility and system-level goals. It also serves as a living record of everything your team has accomplished.
Go from current to ideal together.
Now that your Ideal Story is written, and you have a list of short and long-term projects prepared, use the co-design tools and approaches of PCVS to move your team through the improvement process.
Remember, your team’s story can (and should) change over time. Use it as your roadmap when creating ideal patient, family and employee journeys. Revisit it from time to time to be sure you’re heading in the right direction or to reflect on how far you’ve come. Your team will benefit from the opportunity to co-design better experiences. Better experiences will result in better outcomes and engagement. The power of storytelling will bring everyone into this journey of improvement.