What I Learned Spending Time with The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation

I was so excited when I was invited to speak for this Healthcare and Hospice Innovation virtual meeting. Like many of you, the care and compassion of Hospice has touched my life in a very real and personal way. I saw this as an opportunity to give back - to serve the ones who have lovingly served me and so many others. My goal was to make them laugh, remind them of the value they bring to this world, and show them how story is the key to influencing others, including ourselves.

Zoom keynotes are VERY hard for a storyteller and a comedian. You have no energy to feed off of. It's also hard because my tendency is to want to interact and talk with them on a computer,? instead of talking TO them, like I do from stage. But I'm a storyteller. I tell stories. It's what I do. I believe in their power.? And I knew that the same reason stories work so well on stage, would be the same? reason they would work virtually. We are often told (as speakers) that people get bored faster on a computer, so we need to make sure we get to the point fast, interact, get them talking, etc. However, those same people we fear are going to be bored will be the same people who get on Netflix that night and watch hours of their favorite show. Good stories will keep their attention. Which was kind of the point of my whole talk.?

Whenever I go speak to a group, I think about how they influence and persuade others to see how they might use the tool of story in their own work. I also look at the stressors they face and how this stress can be caused to some degree by the stories they tell themselves. My programs are created to empower you to realize the power you have to change the way you see your world and the power you have to change the way others see it.

Here are three take-aways I learned when I looked at how the tool of story applies to those in the Hospice and Healthcare industry:

1. Story Helps You Sell The Service By Humanizing the Brand.? With any service, there is a time when you must sell that service to someone else. We sell the job to a potential new hire. We sell the need to those we want to invest. We sell the service to the community.? The cardinal rule of sales is that people buy from people they like, believe in, trust, and feel like they know. Story does that. Your information can't do that. Story shows us who you are without you having to tell us. It humanizes you, the brand, and creates an emotional personal connection with your listener.
2. Story Shows the Family You Care and Prepares Them For the Journey. In my own family's hospice experience, I remember how overwhelmed we felt - how unprepared and helpless. We had never been through something like this before - we didn't know what to expect. Our Hospice advisor gave us a book that showed us what to expect at each step - what we would experience, and how we might be feeling. It was almost like a children's book in its simplicity. We held on to that book like a lifeline. This story they created helped prepare us. Not only that, but people who visited us or talked with us on the phone showed true caring and compassion - not by saying they cared, but by showing us. How? By showing that they knew pieces of our story - of who my father was, and sharing their own personal experiences. Story connects us.? That mattered more to us than how fast they responded or whether they handled things in the manner we wanted. Story reaches into places medicine and knowledge can't.
3. Story Inspires Your Team.? As with any job, especially one in a service industry, it can be quite stressful. Caring for others, and responding to customers who really don't want to see you coming, can take its toll.? Doing more with less, dealing with difficult people, and balancing your work with all the struggles you have at home - well, it can be daunting. In these moments, I love to come in and remind people of the beauty in their work - remind them of how much they matter - encourage them to think about the reason they do the work that they do. I show them their work in a new story. I then encourage them to create their own WHY story. Having this personal WHY story can be something that refreshes your motivation and puts a face on the people you serve - even if you work in a corner office and never step directly into those lives. A well told collective story that shows how every person contributed to this work, can also help to keep people motivated on the stressful days.

Thank you to the people who joined me on the call, and to all of you out there who work in Hospice care and Healthcare. You matter so much more than you realize. For every thing that you do, there is a real face and a story of someone whose day was made better because of you. We appreciate you.