I stands for information
In the breakroom today, I noticed a television commercial that featured an elderly woman talking about her recent diabetes diagnosis. She claimed to get all the information she needed but that she had no way to understand it. The solution? Call the insurance company for help.
I know the point of the commercial was to show the company as a good and kind entity that’s ready to serve its customers. However, it made me think about the woman’s experience and what could be done to make the information (dare I call it overload?) comprehensible to her.
Patients are given information, but don’t they have expection of context from their healthcare providers? Wouldn’t it be better for her to turn to her doctor and say, “Explain this to me in way that’s useful and will improve my health?” Or have materials written for different education levels? Or stress levels? Perhaps I’m naive.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting that information overload is now a point of differentiation for insurance companies. Sad to say, I can’t remember the name of the company…Liberty something-something I think.
Though I have no children of my own, I’ve been fascinated by Super Nanny’s Jo Frost. Week in and week out, she turns brats into beautifully behaved children, saves marriages, improves overall family life and makes friends with everyone while doing it. I’m in awe of her.
Knowledge management is my justification for watching the show. No, really. Observe the facts and tell me if you agree:
- Every week Jo comes into a home and spends the first day or so observing the “family process” in situ. In other words, she looks at what these families are currently doing, how are they doing it, and what do they ultimately hope to achieve. She defines the “burning platform” — for both the children and parents! I like that she listens to the kids and gets their input. It’s important to get the buy-in from everyone in the situation.
- Next, she works up a plan to help them meet their goals. She reviews the plan with the parents and kids, answers their questions and then spends a couple of days helping them implement the plan. Lots and lots of feedback is given in this stage…she works hard to make knowledge transfer happen.
- Jo then leaves the family for a few days, but has their activities taped so she can check on their progress. It’s important for the parents to internalize the information and turn it into knowledge, but Jo knows they won’t do this unless they implement the plan on their own. Wise Jo! She reviews the tapes and works up a list of issues to address.
- Jo reviews the tapes of the family with the parents, and gives more feedback about how they’re implementing their family plan. I like that she gives positive feedback, and that the tapes prevent the parents from downplaying mistakes.
- After a few more days, Jo leaves. A follow-up is done at some later point and we get to see if the changes worked for the family long term. Not surprisingly, they often do, and we get to see a healthier, happier family.
Knowledge transfer happens in the midst of this show, so I watch it. However, I don’t know if the super nanny approach would work in a business setting, hmmm, but it would be fun to try. I wonder how my direct reports would react to a “naughty corner”? hehehehehe Okay, maybe it’s equal parts km and guilty pleasure.
Excuse me while I work to become smarter by watching television.
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