Developing content for hospitals and healthcare organizations is a specialized skill. Many content providers out there profess to be “experts,” but what they are experts at might be quick market-speak or undifferentiated, vanilla content that sounds just like the guy down the street. Every organization has its own unique story; it’s getting that story – you know, the one that affects your customers on a visceral level – that is the hard part.

WriterGirl has spent years honing its craft – and its craft is providing content that tells your story. Hospital and healthcare writing is our gig – it’s all we do. And telling your foundational stories – the ones that transcend the bricks and mortar, the outward face – is definitely our passion.

What can you do to get the best out of WriterGirl? Get ready to work … at least initially. Because there are a few things we’ll need from you before we can get you out of the weeds.

• Consider what you’re trying to achieve and communicate that to us. We’ll figure out how to get it done. But first, we’d like to understand your needs.
• Identify your key players. Let them in on your plan. Introduce us to them as your partner.
• Follow through on your review process. Everything we do hinges on your ability to turn feedback around quickly.
• Be available for communication. Even if it’s five minutes a week, we’ll take it.

Believe it or not, these four simple steps will see any project with WriterGirl through to completion, on time and on budget. Like I said, we’re experts … not at producing content, but in telling your story. Because it’s your story that makes you unique.

Sometimes being nice to people can feel difficult, especially when it seems like efforts are going unnoticed. But rest assured, that kindness always returns. Maybe not in the way you expect it, but perhaps from another way … like signing on with a brand-new client that we are really excited about, who aligns with our principals, and is noticeably grateful for our efforts.

Being kind will always pay off … in one way or another.

Christy Schlake, President & CEO

Today, I read an op-ed piece called Hospitals Aren’t Hotels that made me think about patient satisfaction a little differently. The writer (an oncology nurse) makes valid points about what questions on a survey might elicit valid responses when it comes to patient satisfaction. And it doesn’t stop there. An NPR video titled Here’s Hoping You Never Get a Hotel Bill Like This One uses humor to point out that hotels couldn’t get away with billing like hospitals do.

I don’t know if the op-ed was written in response to the NPR video, but both raise issues that every healthcare consumer should be thinking about. First, in spite of much advertising to the contrary, hospitals aren’t engaged in the business of hospitality. Second, our healthcare costs continue to spiral out of control, with no clear solutions in sight.

I don’t profess to have the answers to these problems, but I do think it’s an interesting and important conversation to have. And it’s important that all of us make an effort, however difficult it may be, to understand the costs associated with the treatments we receive.

Christy Schlake, President and CEO, WriterGirl & Associates

In my opinion, January is the perfect time to talk about failing forward, simply because so many of us have set ourselves up to fail by making all sorts of resolutions. The problem usually isn’t that we resolve to do something, but rather that we resolve to do something (or many things) that simply aren’t realistic. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons to be learned from our failures.

I make mistakes all of the time, and at WriterGirl, we have a culture that allows for that. Our goal is to never make the same mistake twice, and we rarely do. That’s because we work hard to learn from our mistakes, to use those mistakes to propel us forward toward ever-more-challenging goals. A perfect example of this was a recent situation where we didn’t win a project. Instead of beating ourselves up or looking at it as a failure, we chose to use this experience as a catalyst for taking a step back and looking at ourselves and our company from the outside in. This exercise resulted in some great, innovative thinking, and it really got our creative juices flowing. So instead of feeling dejected about a missed opportunity, we’re excited about what the future holds.

That’s what I call failing forward, and it’s my hope that you all fail spectacularly in this manner in the coming year. Happy 2012!

It seems so simple, when you think about it. But it wasn’t until I read Isaac’s words that I realized the reason why I love working for WriterGirl. Sit in on a weekly team meeting and you’ll think, “what a hapless display of witless tomfoolery!” What you’ll sense, though, is a deep respect and camaraderie between team members; each individual bringing a unique perspective to the table. Somehow it just works. Perhaps that’s what is meant by chemistry.

We learn about new things by reacting with a negative or positive response. You removed your hand from the fire. You enjoyed a pat on the back for sharing toys. Then, as human beings, we take a defining leap. We fail. It hurts. We try again and discover we have wings. Amazing.

Discomfort is a necessary component of evolution. As a PMP, I read a lot on change management. It goes deeper than work life. It’s whether you’ve chosen to challenge yourself. To me, a defining choice.