Example Reflection - Storytelling - Jose Brown    Challenge & Selection  Storytelling can be a great communication tool to utilize. You can be  presented with a project or task and drill down to the actions items but if you  know the “why” behind the actions it can make all the difference in a  successful project.     I am in the healthcare industry and I work with IT on various projects and  enhancements. A recent project request from our OBGYN team to reduce  delays in getting critical report results for high risk pregnancies back to the  physician so they could take needed action. The current manual process  included faxing results and many times took hours or even a day before the  physician would see those results. This could add to an already risky situation.     This project seemed straightforward and the benefits obvious to everyone on  the team. But twelve months into the project and we could not get a  successful test completed. Many factors contributed to the stalemate. We did  not have a test environment to utilize and we had to use the production  environment to test. We experienced turnover in key roles, COVID 19 delays,  restricted physician availability and several other factors that added to the  delay.       Application  I opted to create a process flow to assist with testing so we could visualize  who was responsible for a specific task. We scheduled a meeting and opened  with a specific patient story that illustrated the risks these delayed reports can  result in without the change. Others on the call opened up about examples  they have experienced. We discussed the length of time this request has been  in process (many months now) and opened up the forum for ideas on how  best to tackle these delays. Many heads with valuable expertise are better  than my head and my limited experience with this report system. The visual  storyboard opened up the conversation and we are able to visually see how  many teams and individuals are involved in this process.

Insight & Approach  The results are still in the works. We are working through restricted schedules  with testers and physicians. But the team is more open and responsive and I  have a good feeling we will get this project completed much sooner than if we  had not included the “why” this change is so important and the impact it has  on our patients and internal customers.

