TIMING
TIMING is everything. That very common saying may not be literally true but it led me to a very interesting picture at https://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2013/03/21/timing-is-everything/
The TIMING of an action is a critical consideration for achieving results from that action. It is obvious when considering actions like swinging a bat to hit a moving ball. It may be harder to recognize when taking an action intended to change behavior or change a decision.
For DynaMed Plus we have greatly emphasized reducing “time to answer”. There are some great technical solutions with semantic indexing (indexing the concepts found in our content and not just the specific words used) and search results that take you directly to the section of interest (no longer having to navigate by web pages or full topics). But we can also do this in our writing and editing, not just in paying attention to the flow of how clinicians use our work, but also by considering the related information that one may need.
There are likely more unrecognized information needs than recognized information needs. When we group information together well, the clinician finds what they need for many of these unrecognized information needs. And when that occurs, the “time to answer” reduces to negative measures (occurring before the question was asked) and the clinician may think “What great TIMING – I needed that just then.”
But how do you consider TIMING for asking for a change in people’s behavior or decisions? How do you change the TIMING of your proposal to increase your chances of getting results?
There are three times when people change - when they hurt enough they have to, when they learn enough they want to, and when they receive enough they are able to. If you can recognize they are hurting, perhaps the right words at the right time will ease the pain, and, if you have a solution for making things better, then the time of pain may be the TIMING for change for the better. If pain relief is not the driver, can you recognize when they have learned enough or received enough, or can you give enough to reach that point?
When opportunity knocks, answer the door. TIMING is recognizing when the knocking is occurring.
Almost forgot. To tie this in with prior themes – TIMING is a key consideration in STORYTELLING. And I didn’t make it a two-word Tuesday, I don’t want anything to do with two-timing.