Human interest helps fight the 7 dreary P’s
Call them the seven dreary P’s: programs, plans, policies, procedures, protocols, positions and products.
Bring these mind-numbing topics to life by turning them into an eighth P: people.
That’s what graduates of our most recent Master the Art of the Storyteller Master Class did.
Let people stand for protocols.
For instance, when Sharon Weinfeld, a communications strategist for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, announced that a team of member nurses had decreased health care-related infections, she could have tersely delivered the news.
Instead, she brought the story to life with one nurse.
Before | After |
Teams of bedside nurses from four New York City hospitals significantly reduced two healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) — central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Based at New York-Presbyterian (NYP)/Columbia University Medical Center, NYP/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, NYP/Weill Cornell Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital, the teams conducted the quality improvement initiatives as part of AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy. | New York City critical care nurse Katie Winkler winces, teeth clenched and body rigid, as she recalls the hellish — and preventable — ordeal of Charlie, one of her patients last year. Already immobilized, breathing only with the help of a ventilator and on a regimen of hourly IV meds as a result of a brain aneurism, Charlie contracted an excruciating and life-threatening catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI). For critically ill patients fighting for their lives, another infection is the last thing they need — and may be the last thing they experience on this earth. While sixty percent of critical care patients with CAUTIs and CLABSIs (central line-associated bloodstream infections) suffer long-term, irreversible effects, more than 27,000 of them die from these infections every year. “Charlie didn’t have to endure that,” said Winkler, staff nurse in the Neuroscience ICU at New York Presbyterian (NYP)/Columbia University Medical Center. “CAUTI is completely preventable.” |
Bring stories to life with people.
It’s The Writing Rule of One: Your readers care more about one person they know something about than dozens or hundreds of nameless, faceless souls.
So find a person to stand for your point.
Master the Art of the Storyteller
Storytelling is “the most powerful form of human communication,” according to Peg Neuhauser, author of Corporate Legends and Lore. Indeed, stories can help you get attention, boost credibility, make your messages more memorable — even communicate better.
At Make Your Copy More Creative — a two-day creative writing master class on Feb. 23-24 in Phoenix — you’ll learn to identify, develop and tell stories that will illustrate your points, communicate your messages and sell your products, services and ideas. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:
- Find the ah-ha! moment that’s the gateway to every anecdote.
- Elicit juicy stories with the key question to ask during an interview.
- Organize your material into a powerful story in just three steps with our simple storytelling template.
- Start an anecdote with a bang — instead of a snivel.
- Find anecdotes in the making with “WBHA.”
Browse all upcoming Master Classes.
Would you like to hold an in-house Make Your Copy More Creative workshop? Contact Ann directly.