From one perspective, a hospital can be viewed as a beehive of intersecting and shared stories. First, a patient arrives at the front door with a history, both personal and health wise, and the trajectory of their personal narrative can be fundamentally altered by the outcome of what occurs during their health crisis. It can be just a blip on the calendar: an interesting tale to be told about getting stitches for a cut or a false alert about chest pains. And the individual picks up where they left off, now with an entertaining story to be told at a dinner party. Or, the health event can be so serious that it irrevocably alters the path of their lives. A good friend of mine who is a triathlete collapsed one evening two years ago with a hemorrhagic stroke. He barely survived and for the next two years took on his rehabilitation [...]

Each of us spends varying amounts of time in front of the mirror each day preparing, comparing, and analyzing our appearance related to a standard we have set for ourselves.  Seeing our reflection, we quickly receive feedback, make adjustments and perfect our look whether it is our hair, makeup or proper clothes. This daily ritual is a just that—a ritual or habit; repetitive and automatic.  We wouldn’t leave the house without our daily ‘reflection’.  What other reflective activities can be used to produce continuous improvement?  Effective, high performing teams use a very specific feedback event known as the ‘debrief’ to reflect past team performance and promote experiential learning.  Debriefs are short-lived instances where teams face the ‘mirror’ (each other) to reflect valuable insights, knowledge, and shared understandings designed to optimize performance. In a debrief team members get a chance to review decision-making, timing, efficiency, and effectiveness along with identifying opportunities for [...]

To some, the notion of using “story” or the act of “storytelling” as a tool for organizational change may seem new or even novel. But humankind has been using stories to communicate within and across organizations for thousands of years. In many ways, “story” is the original tool of transformation. Think back to the earliest form of organizational identity – the tribe. After departing Egypt, Moses delegated authority to the elders of the Israelites to listen to disputes, creating a hierarchy that ultimately reported back to him, creating what is probably the earliest known example of an organization. Looking closer to home, the native peoples who inhabited this continent prior to the arrival of Europeans had a rich tradition of using stories to impart knowledge across the generations for the ongoing benefit and sustainment of the group – where and at what time of year were the best hunting grounds, how [...]

At the recent Society of Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) annual meeting, over 4,000 healthcare professionals gathered to network, share and learn best practices related to the use of simulation.  The uses of simulation in healthcare include knowledge and skill building in professional education and performance improvement across the healthcare environment.  The ‘simulator’ has become the center of attention in the simulation industry with most of the research and development poured into creating a more high tech or realistic experience.  This level of realism is known in the simulation jargon as fidelity or the ‘suspension of disbelief’.  When you say the word ‘simulation’, most healthcare professionals immediate think of ‘talking’ mannequins that breathe, bleed, react and respond to clinical actions through a set of complex, computer programmed actions during a laboratory or classroom-based session.  The exhibitors at the conference are dominated by manufacturers that create these types of simulators and all the [...]