The article starts with this: “A Frenchman walks into a bar with a duck on his head, and the bartender asks, “Hey, where’d you get that?” So the duck says “I got it in Paris, they’ve got millions of ’em there.”
An article at “Fast Company” by Don Peppers starts this way:
“A Frenchman walks into a bar with a duck on his head, and the bartender asks, “Hey, where’d you get that?” So the duck says “I got it in Paris, they’ve got millions of ’em there.”
“The thing that makes jokes like this funny is that the punchline does not fit the context of the setup. We depend on context to increase our comfort and our ability to function effectively. In fact without context most tasks that we need to accomplish in the senior housing industry would turn into a disaster.”
Here is the Rub!
In order to innovate, to be creative, context is still important but in exactly the opposite way we usually use it. “Context violations produce things you don’t expect, from funny punch lines to innovative ideas. . . . . ”
The Senior Housing Problem
I have argued, discussed and written about the lack of creativity in Senior Living; The way to prove this out is to look at a dozen senior housing websites and your eyes will become blurry with how alike they are. This is not surprising because, in the day-to-day operation of senior living communities, context is everything. We use context to figure out what is really important to prospects and their families. We use context to figure out what is going on in the lives of our residents. We know the same complaint, the same request, the same symptom from two residents might mean very different things depending on the context of those complaints, requests or systems.. Context is critical to providing excellent care. This deep dependence on context is perhaps the number one reason why we don’t see more innovation in senior housing.
Violate Context and Innovate
The INC article provides some great ideas for violating context to inspire creativity. Here is my version of that list for senior housing:
- Read stuff from outside the industry – Like the article I used as the base for this article.
- If you are an executive director, run the activities program for a day and, even better, let your activities director be the executive director for a day.
- Get out of your office and do your job from the front lobby or the dining room.
- If you dress casual when you go to work, dress formal – Halloween does not count
- Drive your community van for a day.
- Do a fruit basket upset of jobs in your community for a day – Then debrief.
- Meet someone new each day and really get to understand what makes them tick.
- Engage in physical exercise each day.
You can read the Fast Company article here. 7 Ways To Stimulate Your Capacity For Creativity Have you tried any of these ideas? Steve Moran
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From LinkedIn Groups
A senior living advertising professional walks into a bar with a duck on his head, and the bartender asks, “Hey, where’d you get that?” So the duck says “I got it in at my local ad agency, they’ve got a bunch of ’em there.” Context, reciprocal empathy and vulnerability are important to older consumers. Senior living marketing professionals, ad agencies and executive have lost control of messaging. It is no longer a monologue controlled by the messenger, but a dialogue controlled by the consumer. Listen and learn or continue the struggle.
By G. Richard ‘Dick’ Ambrosius
From LinkedIn Groups
Steve,
In every aspect of healthcare we need to start thinking outside the box and doing better assessments.
Back when I was a clinical director, we had what was known is the frequent flier multiple admissions to the hospital. We had a diabetic, non-compliant retired from the military, he was admitted to the hospital 4 times and 3 times to sub-acute nursing facility within a 6 month period. On his last admission we decided to do an in depth social assessment on him. Well daily he went to a pub and met with his group of buddies. So with his permission we came to the pub and made his issues the topic of conversation. The outcome was one of buddies, took responsibility for his wound, another did his daily blood sugar and then there was the champion who watch over his consumption of alcohol and food intake. He never went back to the hospital, his wound healed and his A1C went from a 10 to a 6. You have to think out of the box.
As I started building care management programs we have engaged community houses of worship, public libraries and even Elks and Lions club. Just an example we used a public library to teach seniors how to access the patient portal on their EHR with their Primary Care Physician. We measured in the PCMH and the compliance of this population also increased and the seniors became more engaged in their health. Another additive was their socialization increased because they went to the library more often because we sent them up with Gmail accounts to speak with their families.
By Mary Doherty RN/MSN
That’s a nurse for ya!
Bravo
Mary Kobet, RN, BA
From LinkedIn Groups
Great article to start off the New Year!
By Andréa Catizone
From LinkedIn Groups
Steve, Happy New Year and thanks for sharing! Here’s another thought related to creativity and “context”. I am amazed by how many owner/operators are “disconnected” from their product and customers. Why not invite the Owner and/or most senior Management Executive(s) to spend a three day weekend living on-site? Ask them to bring spouses who can keep a journal of their experiences. This will definitely generate some creative ideas!
By David Smith
From LinkedIn Groups
WOW, this is a great idea. So much so, I am going to suggest this to my Executive Director. Nothing like a REAL “mystery shop.” Thank YOU.
By Nancy Anne Razim