Christine Kraft's Blog

Vineet Nayar's thoughts on Davos make good sense for health care too

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:25:00 +0000

It used to be "hard power" applied from the top that got things done. In turn, it became "soft power" -- the achievement of change by persuasion. And today? [World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus] Schwab believes our future rests on "collaborative power" -- that is, "the integration of empowered newcomers" into the decision-making process. Read the post from Vineet Nayar, CNN Money

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When it comes to changing the culture of health, many will outwardly embrace the "empowered newcomer" while continuing business as usual. I have wrestled with this idea in a handful of professional contexts and observe my own occasional resistance to engaging newcomers as an attempt to keep the discomfort of "not knowing" at bay. Here's why:

Co-mingling empowered newcomers into mature business processes makes many anxious and awkward. It is painful and there is rarely adequate time for dialog. Maybe it is the newcomber's unscripted, unpredictability, or the notion among the "chaired" that these folks (we folks) "don't get it" or cannot "articulate it" with dispatch and cleverness of word to the extent others desire.

But squirm as we may, until more chaired leaders become skilled at tolerating the anxiety and uncertainty of these kinds of encounters, the conversation will continue to leave a valuable raw energy source untapped. ...

The "irrational season" of American health care is upon us. This is a season of seduction and it keeps calling us to envision care in new ways; to create apps, information, tools, treatments and processes that come closer to healing, to loving, to closer personal contexts, to tools that care for us like the mother or father we had (or never had). The promises are intoxicating, the needs overwhelming, the technology mind blowing.

But will we even come close to making a difference? ... Ask an empowered newcomer to answer that question.

For years I have asked myself versions of the same question, with a slightly different twist: How can we unleash and package the power of the individual? How can we establish trust as a product baseline? How can we return a productive humility to the process, ranking a person's ability to "not know" as honorably as another's robotic "always knowing"?

How do we do this one relationship at a time, at scale?

I view the individual as the power behind the networks; ours is a vast and fluid kinship system (see Facebook if you have doubts). And as tempting as it may be to bet on data mining and the intermediary influence of technology as killer apps, do these approaches systematically boil down and distribute the rich insights, illuminations and epiphanies we may hunger for at times of healing, or in a perennial way in our hearts and minds. Is direct contact with the source the way? ... Is simplicity the way? How can we get there?

As Vineet Mayar writes in his post, accepting empowered newcomers into the circle is essential today. I would add that if one is not able to reach outside "of one's own hashtag" and listen to an outsider, then it may be time to focus on excavating the empowered newcomer within. We all have one ... just waiting to learn things we do not know.

Get there safely

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:33:00 +0000

Denver International Airport Sign, Terminal C, 2011

This sign surprised me and got me thinking about planning for the unexpected.

Along with Baggage Claim and Gate listings, I would expect to see Ground Transportation, Taxi/Shuttles/Transit. I would expect to get directions to the Restrooms, First Aid/Medic, even Police or Emergency stations. But I would not expect Tornado Shelter as a 1-line option on these signs.

Since tornadoes aren't part of my basic weather consciousness, seeing a "tornado shelter" called-out next to the usual suspects teased my anxiety, rather than prompt my sense of preparedness.

It left me wanting a follow-up on the topic so that I could learn about incidences and specifics of tornadoes in Denver, and parse the level of risk associated with a trip through Denver International.

Blog Action Day 2011: Clagett Farm, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:08:00 +0000

Since 2007, Blog Action Day has focused bloggers around the world to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change and poverty. This year Blog Action Day is focused on the topic of food.

(This photo via absentmindedprof on Flickr)

Yesterday we traveled out to Clagett Farm, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's working farm and education center, for a day of service.

Clagett Farm is a 285-acre historic tobacco farm 12 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. and six miles west of Maryland’s Patuxent River (just outside Upper Marlboro, MD). A living model of environmentally sustainable farming practices, the farm's landscape is covered with 20 acres of organic vegetables, clover, and grass pastures for beef cattle, as well as 60 acres of forest.

Our chores included removing hundreds of yards of drip tape from a crop field and disposing it; harvesting the last remaining green, yellow, and purple beans; and weeding 200+ native tree and shrub nursery pots. The work was moderately intense - the heavy-weeding especially -- but all three tasks were good for mixed ages looking to explore farming life through physical work.

Yesterday's service also reminded me that the range of choices we have when it comes to food in America is astounding when compared to so many other countries or regions. We can lose sight of our advantages while working hard to improve the problems surrounding mass production, food safety, urban food advocacy and malnutrition.

Choosing to eat life-supporting foods and feeling gratitude for that food is a habit, and a single visit to a farm will not instill this habit in our hearts and minds. But my belief is that a day of hard work on a farm can contribute to the ongoing dialog we have at home. Plus, it's fun.

The kids are tomorrow's growers, buyers, parents and advocates. They need to taste the differences for themselves. It's a simple path, but not one that is always easy to follow.

Predicting the future

Coco's weekly meal plan: Kid tested!

Visual health safari - Chinatown, San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:55:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I took a long walk around San Franscisco, looking for new examples of health messages. At the end of my route, as I walked back toward my hotel in Union Square, I meandered along Washington Street. From there I was swept up into a busy Sunday morning in Chinatown.

First look: Colorful, aromatic, busy, ancient environment

One of the coolest things I checked out was this busy Apothecary. Don't miss the shot of the Chinese doctor in the back of the shop. Too bad my iPhone couldn't capture the earthy aroma of the herbs...

Herbalists mix tonics for clients waiting with prescriptions.

Hundreds of herbs are stored in the small drawers behind the counter.


Each herb is carefully weighed.

Chinese and American clients share information while waiting for prescriptions.

The doctor consults with patients out in the open, in back. $12 for a consultation.

A food and learning message system

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:14:00 +0000

Visual health messaging is a powerful force.

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Walking the Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:42:00 +0000

It's been more than a year since I've posted. This year has been tremendous.

It was a year for listening.
A year for witnessing.
A year for loss.
A year for compromise.
A year for very hard work.
A year to love.

Ted Eytan, MD (who accuses me weekly of hoarding what he views are Tweet-worthy thoughts) is someone everyone should get to know. We love to laugh together and I like to share my whip-smartz on him from time to time. But he's been mad and wants to out more of my thoughts and takes on the world. Someday he'll perceive the introvert in me and realize that my quietitude (I like that new word!) is less about hoarding than it is about feasting on the brilliance of those around me.

From time to time I did hold back, it's true. But it was merely a measure of self-preservation as the momentum of thoughts and ideas accelerated beyond capacity for me.

Throughout this year of listening, I've realized that there is often little to add to a conversation when it really takes flight, as much of our Health 2.0 convos have. We seeded them, they started to take off. It was amazing and I found that listening with an active mind was as delightful as joining the conversation most times. Have you ever played loud music when no one is home? It's a pure indulgence.

Ted's passion and work, the very way he walks the walk has been more than inspiring listening for me this year. And his signature social ease continues to be put to good use: I am nothing short of amazed by the amount of GOOD he, Holly Potter and Danielle Cass have accomplished at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health this year.

But there's another voice that's lifted this year. It's an advocate who approaches every speaking event as if she's a child jumping into a playground's fresh new sand box equipped with a couple of cool water features she's been given permission to try out. I'm talking about Regina, of course. She's archetypal; a wonderful balance of Mary and Martha, but someone who also possesses more than a dose of Wonder Woman's metal cuffs. (She loves Buffy, though.) Either way, don't mess with her.

But, LISTEN to her. Listen to Regina's heart song... The Holliday call is distinctive, like jazz. Soothing, like lullabies. BIG, like opera. And all her song ever asks of us is this: Respond. Share. Play.

This year tested my strength and I came away knowing that I can accomplish a lot. Along the way I outgrew sharing my own story to a certain extent. I put it into redevelopment :-) and moved into a my story is your story, and your story is my story kind of space that opens up a world more expansive and friendly. There's a lot to cover here.

I'll continue to spot talent, to facilitate the spread of certain ideas, to clap and cheer for my team as we evolve. We're here, we're there, we're here. It's a pleasure, really. The connections to be made...and more.

Let go or be dragged

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:58:00 +0000

I have a friend who builds piers. He defends dry land against the force of oceans, tides, and rising waters. You might think he's a burly dude, into all his heavy equipment and massive impact. But not so much. He's about the smart trade-off; minimizing damage done.

When my friend recently shared the expression, "Let go or be dragged," I knew it was a keeper. I've never heard of a better way to describe the pain caused by a failure to let go. How about you? Can you find an incidence of being "dragged" in your own life? Would letting go help?

"Let go or be dragged" ... It's quite a handy little phrase.

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Chances are, you are not fully covered: Photo by Brooks Kraft

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:56:00 +0000

A great shot taken at the health care rally in Dupont Circle.

Photo by Brooks Kraft

Choosing growth

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:01:00 +0000

Michele Woodward is a personal coach who really knows her stuff. Yesterday she posted, "Finally Un-stuck" and I think it is so important that I just have to excerpt it here:

...
Stuck is a nerve-wracking place. And takes a ton of energy. So much energy, in fact, that it’s hard to find the oomph to do anything other than be stuck.

People who are stuck often face some kind of big decision or life change. And they torment themselves with, “Is this the right choice? What if I make a mistake?”

That is the stuck place. Can’t move forward for fear of doing something wrong, and can’t go back due to the space-time continuum, so… stay stuck.

There’s only one way to break through the muck and get un-stuck. And that is to reframe the question from, “Is this the right choice?” to “Am I choosing growth?”
...

What great advice. Having a flexible framework that serves as a decision aid is a super idea and one worth sharing. I'm definitely choosing growth!

Read the whole post here.

I can't write another word about health; I'm just gonna live it the best I can

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:12:00 +0000

Health reform fatigue has got me doubled over at the waist; spinning in the head; toxic on the tongue. It must be time for a good belly laugh and some more common sense. After all, even if we're headed for disaster we'll still need to stay healthy somehow. 'Nuf said...

Fall seven times, stand up eight: A review of Therese Borchard's "Beyond Blue"

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:23:00 +0000

Therese Borchard defies the simple summary...

Maybe it is her beauty that keeps one unsuspecting of her storm within. Or maybe it's her uncommon gift of elevating the practical and accessible buried within the shrouded and hard-to-talk about. Whatever the reasons, Therese is a gifted writer giving voice to themes of darkness, despair, and empowerment in a style reserved for only the most articulate, curious and self-actualized women writers of our time.

Today, thousands already read her thoughts about life with depression and bipolar on The Huffington Post, on Beyond Blue, and on many other mental health portals. Now she's written a generous book, Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes that offers her readers 17 broad chapters of authetic and transparent insight into her personal experience of life with depression and bipolar. A few witty chapter heads read:

Booze: The Quiet Car in My Very Loud Brain (Chapter 3)
No Really, I'm Not Making It Up: Depression Is a Brain Disease (Chapter 10)
Sorry, Wrong Number: Codependency and Boundaries (Chapter 15)

As I read the book, I noticed that Therese's spirit is an honest guide, at once accepting of where she's at and then very demanding of herself to get better and keep at it. She is all about walking the road beyond "Your Momma's Mental Illness" and giving a view into a wide open frontier rich with Christian tradition, Buddhist teaching, physical endurance training, nutrition guidance, mind-altering pharma, and old-fashioned "muddling on through," American common sense. A "post modern mental health guide" is the phrase that comes to mind.

I highly recommend the book for "advanced" readers; those people ready to explore a modern and more explicitly personal approach to coping with serious mental illness. This is not "chicken soup for the soul", although those ideas are held within. No, it's more of a unique look at how a woman -- even in her lowest moments of despair -- remains engaged and fierce as she attempts to solve the most stubborn of her problems; her mind.

No doubt Therese's tenacity and drive to excel in life fuels much of her self-discovery while breaking the barriers down for others to follow. In Chapter 11, Work it, Girlfriend! My personal 12-Step Program, Therese describes in witty detail how she weaves spirituality, pharma, lifestyle, relationships, and psychology into a set of simple steps. This is not to say that by working these steps one will forever be free of relapse. Quite the contrary. These steps are a component of her healthy living regimen, not its totality, so take them with a grain of salt. (And if you still aren't convinced, see Chapter 6...)

Since most of us could benefit from working these steps, I'll summarize them here:

Step 1: Find the right doctor - It was doctor number 7, from Johns Hopkins that was her winner.

Step 2: Find the right cocktail - It took her 23 different tries before she found relief in pharmaceuticals.

Step 3: Exercise - Cardio, cardio, cardio.

Step 4: Eat well - "Because some of us really are what we eat," she notices her mood drop after a day or two of toxic eating.

Step 5: Sleep! "... It's about putting your head on the same pillow, on the same bed, at the same time every night, and sleeping for the same amount of time."

Step 6: Light Up - Use light to supplement what's naturally available to you. This helps optimize your circadian rhythms.

Step 7: Reach Out! - Connect with a community of folks like yourself. She quotes Martin Buber, "When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them."

Step 8: Get Involved - "... Love must drive every sentence and blog post that I write, every decision and behavior throughout my day."

Step 9: Keep a Mood/Sleep/Gratitude Journal - Discover your own personal patterns. Get insight.

Step 10: Therapy and Lots of It - This mini-chapter alone serves as an incredible cheat sheet for finding the right therapeutic fit. There is no "one size fits all solution" to mental health, especially if you have a chronic disease such as bipolar.

Step 11: Pray and Meditate - Therese writes, "I yell at God a lot, too, and I consider my loud rants prayer because getting mad and communicating my frustration means that I'm in a real, organic relationship with my Higher Power."

Step 12: Fake It 'Til You Make It - "For at least 18 months, forty-five of my fifty minute therapy sessions went to acting lessons; how to feign a stable and functional person until I became one."

Therese spares little detail telling her story and some may identify strongly with the depression, anxiety, and addiction issues she writes out. Me, what I found most interesting is Therese's pattern of productive "wrestling" with her own truth. It's hard work! But it is an approach that is becoming more relevant as the complexity and pace of the world (and its changes) accelerate.

The compulsion to understand one's internal workings is not universal but can often pay big dividends of service to the world. While many, many people need to read Beyond Blue because they or people they love suffer from serious mental illness, even more people should read this book to listen into what Therese is calling us to do: Explore, safely, the realm of personal experience in whatever ails you.

This ability to reach within personal chaos and create a cosmos for others is a rare gift. It's like a special evolutionary skill set, one just as rare as these butterflies are rare.

And come to think of it, isn't life about metamorphosis? It's an especially relevant theme for women who regenerate and respond to so many forces. I am all for brave teachers like Therese to lead us in their areas of expertise.

_________

Are you too available?

Adventures in humility

Visible invisibility on Twitter

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Shy, introverted ... connected

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:57:00 +0000

Check out this great presentation by Sacha Chua. The message is useful for kids too.

View more presentations from Sacha Chua.

10 mistakes every patient makes: Trisha Torrey's new book

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Most patients don't understand that their own healthcare is not a right, it's a responsibility. --Trisha Torrey

Trisha Torrey, Every Patient's Advocate for About.com, frequent Health 2.0 contributor, and active Twitter colleague has just written and released You Bet Your Life: The 10 Mistakes Every Patient Makes.

Part consumer guide, part recipe book, part "doctor-patient dating" guide, this book is practical, forward, and detailed in its recommendations to patients like us. The most remarkable aspect of the book is that it takes dozens of complex situations such as patient privacy, patient safety, provider apologies, confirming a diagnosis, to name a few, and breaks them down into usable bites of kitchen table wisdom that can be ported, shared and easily applied. In fact, since reading the book, I have cited dozens of passages in response to questions from friends and family.

While clever and witty and humorous at times, this is probably not a book that you would hand to a person in crisis who may already be feeling overwhelmed by a complicated situation. No. It is not a book of comfort, per se. But it is an essential book that trains us to make better choices, so it would make an excellent addition to most home libraries. If you have a friend in crisis, why not buy the book for yourself and help your friend navigate the situation with Trisha's insight? There will be plenty to share and your friend may be sparked by some of the advice.

To showcase just a bit of Trisha's style and convince you to check out the book, below is a paraphrasing of information included in Chapter 6, "An EmPatient's Strategy for Choosing Dr. Right."

Q - How should I establish a doctor's credentials?

Start by looking the doctor up on the state licensing boards. Take a look at the credentials, and make sure that the license is up to date. (One "dirty little secret" of state licensing information is that some states require the practitioner to keep their license up to date themselves, p.70)

If you have a complicated care issue, then check for problems, errors or malpractice by Googling "Dr. Firstname Lastname" plus the word "error" or "complaint" or "malpractice." See what you find.

Also make sure that the doctor is licensed and practicing in the same realm. (She once saw a doctor practicing as a psychiatrist who was not licensed in Psychiatry, but in Internal Medicine!)

Once you have found a provider relationship you like, she offers a few things you might want to do to keep it positive:

Say thank you. If you feel well-served then go on and say thank you.
Refer your friends to the doctor.
Send a "report card" via http://diagKNOWsis.org/reportcard to highlight the positive or where there is room for improvement.

This review would be remiss without emphasizing that creating health and focusing on prevention of illness is the great-empowered patient stance. Trisha's book does cover this idea at the back of the book, in Chapter 24, "Avoiding the Whole Ugly Healthcare Mess: Prevention." She makes a few quiet points about prevention that deserve amplification:

Prevention is about taking responsibility for your own health, no matter how good or bad it is, and taking the steps you can take in spite of health challenges;
Prevention is about following doctors orders once the two of you have determined a course of action;
Prevention is about stepping out of a comfort zone, or "happy" zone
Prevention is about education. Keep on learning and you'll avoid engaging with less effective treatments.

The soul of the child

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:28:00 +0000

Sometimes I feel like all I do is think, wonder, dream, write, and work to change the health care system at the level of the individual. But, in reality, that's just my hobby. My real job is Mom and home is where I do all of my primary research on healthy living for individuals. Call me a "techno-domestic sensualist." Which is why, for this post, I'd like to celebrate the soul of the child.

I look at the soul of my child as an aspect of my own soul, and use this framework for keeping in touch with my child's inner life without being overbearing.

I recently experienced being interconnected with my son when he had a tough year in school (last year). It wasn't tough in a traditional way; there were no bad grades, no attention issues, bullying or behavior problems dogging him. His grades were excellent, his teachers liked him, and his behavior was just fine. The trouble was, his heart and soul weren't present. He wasn't engaged in what he was doing in the least. He was drifting. He was sad. He didn't want to go to school.

This is the kind of disconnect that makes a mother crazy. I mean, when your kid needs help, I for one prefer to have a clear failure to point to, not a murky, uneasy, sinking feeling that something unnamed is amiss when we go to the school admin and ask for help. And yet, the soul of my child (which is how I framed the problem we had) was whispering in a quiet voice and moving to its own rhythm. You can imagine the challenge I had bringing this to the table in a traditional school environment.

I spent roughly 4 months advocating for our son at our neighborhood public school. The work included: initiating mediation with our Principal, lots of bedtime conversations, staying in constant contact with the school and asking for specific changes to his school day. It took dozens and dozens of hours from work, and was truly uncomfortable to become such a squeaky wheel. But what was the other choice? If not a parent, then who will advocate for the soul of the child?

As I stepped through this process, I was mindful of just how fortunate we are to know how to work the channels. There are millions of mothers and fathers who don't know how, or are too strapped for time, vision, confidence, or money to take even the first steps outbound to the school on behalf of their child.

I am going to skip some detail about how things resolved. Suffice it to say that he recovered by the end of the year, but that we have also moved him to an independent school where he is thriving.

Here's the point: Pay attention to the soul of your child. Trust your instincts. When you feel burnt out and as if you just cannot do another thing about the situation, take a rest and count it as a blessing that you possess the tools to be a powerful advocate. Your child's soul is watching, and learning how to do the same for itself someday.

Related

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"Doing" health

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:07:00 +0000

My comment, "No one knows how to “do” health" on last night's #hcsm radio session brought some puzzled tweets my way. Let me expand:

Health is learned
On the most fundamental level, a health encounter in our system is a learned transaction. It is a learned experience. No adult or child knows how to “survive” cancer, or “beat” diabetes, or be a parent for that matter when he or she starts on day 1. Quite the contrary.

Health is developmental
Health is a developmental process, a series of baby steps deeply and inextricably linked to cultural norms and expectations. Since so many of those norms are being challenged right now, it is a great time to think about how we learn to navigate the health system and what opportunities exist today to make improvements.

Oversimplifying this I realize, but if you were taught not to ask questions of your doctor, then you'll probably need more encouragement to start asking questions and participate more. If you were taught (from experience or environment) that medicine is a crap shoot, then you may be more comfortable advocating for yourself or another in a health care setting. You might feel righteous ... as many do. Or, you may simply give up from the stress of it all and become uncompliant.

We learn by participating
My point is that we learn to "do" health. We learn by participating. By showing up and "muddling on through" in many cases. We learn by accepting uncomfortable treatments, procedures and interventions; by asking questions and wrestling with the answers we get until we are able to take a step forward. The maddening paradox is that healing often brings discomfort, at least initially.

And more discomfort is hard to tolerate when you're in a healing crisis.

"Just right" health care
A patient learning how to participate in her own care can look a lot like Goldilocks from the children's classic. An empowered, participatory patient won't stop looking and learning until she finds what feels "just right" right to her. While the social web can help a patient climb a steep learning curve, so may pharma, tech, friendship, prayer, play, and (____you name it here___). These are all powerful cultural modalities in the healing repertoire.

So, while we don't start out knowing how to "do" a health crisis, the silver lining is that wherever you begin your challenge along the continuum of health, you will have an opportunity to learn and develop. That's right; we are all beginners. Even doctors and nurses are beginners when it comes to their own health crises. And while anything can happen, there is no guarantee that it will.

Get better at health by practicing it
Whether it is learning to eat better and exercise; stay calm and organize a response to a terrifying diagnosis; work like hell to seek alternative treatments; or advocate to “free the damn data,” as ePatient Dave says - adults learn how to “do” health by participating in it.

The good news is…we get much better at "doing" health with practice. Start when you are healthy.

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Related posts:
Communicating with doctors: Practice when you're healthy
Are we betting on the "me" in medicine?

Why tech firms target moms

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:13:00 +0000

Most of us have recently seen headlines such as this one: This is not your father's gadget: Tech firms target moms. This constant Recession/Reform era re-positioning of Mom as "The CEO of This and That Domestic Role" has got me thinking about an insidious pattern of patronizing women...

Take this quote from the article above:

When families with children set out to buy a new laptop computer, for example, it is Mom, not Dad, who is more likely to initiate the discussion, the study revealed. And Mom is more likely to make the final decisions on what features to look for and how much to pay for it.

Most striking is that Mom is much more likely to use the new laptop than Dad. The survey found that 96 percent of mothers said they would make “regular use” of the device, compared to only 80 percent of fathers.

Moms use laptops? Astounding. Groundbreaking. How could we have missed such big news?

If you detect a bit of sarcasm in my tone, you got it. I have a different take on the trends. Moms buy technology because they Have to Get Stuff Done or their kids won't make it. Further:

Moms buy computers, gaming systems, gadgets, etc., in part, to keep control over the extent to which others in the house get to use technology. They set the tone. (It may look like offense, but it is actually defense.)
Moms buy cameras that help them get stuff done so that after work and cleaning and putting the kids to bed they get a professional result when they spend 100s of hours doing image editing and uploading shots as CEO of the "Family Memory."
Moms conduct lots and lots of online health research because -- either separated from or disappointed by their extended families -- there is literally nowhere else to turn for quick health advice that wouldn't involve 1 hour waits, high co-pays, and time off from work. (The Library used to be handy, but they've had to trim back on evening hours due to resource constraints.)
Moms buy and adopt technology to serve others and to feel successful about serving others. Mothering, in spite of all the media noise surrounding it, is still one tough and invisible job.

I'll leave you with this: If you are in the business of developing products for women -- or are in the business of marketing a tech product or concept to women -- spend some time going a bit deeper before you claim to have broken new ground. Ask yourself, "How does my product serve women?" Upon a closer look, you'll see that emancipating them from serving others is probably not something your tool offers, so don't package it that way. Your tool helps a woman get stuff done for the family.

Unleash the hot talent: A letter from a patient

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:35:00 +0000

An appeal for Participatory Medicine, inspired by Diva e-Patient friends and colleagues:

***

January 2010

Dear Wonderful Doctor and Care Team,

I am writing to suggest that you cast me in the most important performance of my life: My Health Care Crisis.

I realize you hardly know me and that you can't really stop to get to know me at this point because there is a long line of folks just like me waiting for your services... But since we're suddenly on a kind of "Fast Track" to get to know my body (given last week's diagnosis), I was hoping that you'd at least consider giving me a supporting role in my upcoming treatment.

I'll play it straight; no Femme Fatal, Gypsy Rose Lee, or Little Lost Soul. Nope, I'll go for a completely modern (dare I say, "sexy") evolving archetype, The Empowered Patient.

I am sure you have questions. And yes, I am a rookie. I cannot predict with the exactness of a doctor like you the outcome of my involvement in my care. But acknowledging that I have a role would be a powerful component in the show. And this is a kind of show, Doctor, isn't it?

What do you say? Can you accept a wee bit of showmanship from the patient side while you miraculously cut that large tumor out of my endometrial liner and administer powerful technology reserved for only the most specially trained among us? This *is* high drama but I promise I won't be too saccharine or too melancholy. I'll take the pain meds as directed and open up to the fear as best as I can.

Doctor, if I haven't made it precisely, exactly, clear to you yet, I think we make a great team. You've gotta let me show you what I've got.

Sincerely,
Your Patient

***

Predicting the future

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:12:00 +0000

Yesterday, my 3rd grader came home with an assignment asking him to write up his predictions for the future. It read: "What are some of the changes you imagine will take place in the next 100 years?"

We got to talking. My son offered a few inventive ideas inspired by experiences with technology: the Wii, TV, the remote, iPhone, instruments, the computer, cool cars, etc. I made a single prediction. I predicted that in the year 2110 we'd have 30% more land being used for active farming in America.

His eyes glazed over at my suggestion and even I had to chuckle at how outlandish the idea seemed. But who knows, maybe it isn't that outlandish after all. Consider it. Given the speed with which people are becoming conscious of the food-farm-health connection, maybe reclaiming a percentage of the land and the productivity we've lost is possible.

Stranger things have happened in America over a span of 100 years...

Who is on the other end of a health search query?

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:32:00 +0000

While producing my thesis film at Boston University in the 90s, one of my wonderfully creative advisers, Srdjan Karanovic cautioned me to be mindful about the themes I worked with because they would likely manifest as important subjects in my life. My, how prophetic he was.

While I don't make films anymore, I curate and create online health content. Sometimes it's like making a movie, but more often it's like making a scene within a movie. The work is creative and growing ever more so with each advance in technology. But what really keeps me interested in the field is that I am always conjuring that audience on the other end of the search query . . .

Is she alone? Or poor? Is he afraid, angry about what he's about to lose? Is the searcher seeking data - just the stats? Or wisdom? Or is it forgiveness he's after?

These distinct "genres" of health queries ideally receive a response that is a rich, service driven offering that meets a searcher where he is, so to speak, then moves him gradually to a place of new understanding and action. We expect a lot, don't we? We regularly promote, "Take control" and "Make it happen" on the pages of the most popular health websites today.

But asking a lot of patients doesn't help them accomplish a lot. And that's why now is the time for companies to invest in building compassionate service-driven content. Now is the time to provide health seachers results that bear witness to the many dimensions of human experience; that educates and cares for people where they are. Now is a time for leadership.

"Mind, body, spirit - from birth to death - by life stage and with empathy," is a possible call to action for health editors today.

As an editor, one cannot help but feel both excitement and responsibility when she's creating content that may influence another person's course of healing. That's why we hope that most editors are compassionate. That they balance science and art in their approach. We also hope that they are experienced and not just cranking content farm pages out based on keyword metrics.

Remember: We are creating content and engines that will fuel pages and pages of search results for years to come. Millions of people will depend on those results.

Professor Karanovic's words come to life when someone I know and love becomes the person behind the search query. That's when my humble impact on the world is revealed for what it is: a drop in the bucket. Yet, in these moments, when I sit with a sick friend and I sense her excruciating search for answers to questions such as: Why is this happening? How can I get back to ___ or ___? Will I be able to afford this medicine? Can anyone help me? Am I going to die? . . . I am living the themes of my work.

In these moments I am overcome with a desire to reassure and to serve in whatever way is appropriate and practical. But it is not my desire to reassure a friend that she will survive or live the way she used to live. No, it is more my wish to reassure her that she is not alone, that the suffering she feels is real, and overwhelming, and frightening. And that, in spite of all these things, she still stands a chance of making it through. Yes, it is powerful training to sit and share with sick people.

But the bulk of the job gets done when I return to my desk to humbly curate and edit packets of health information. I cannot help but be mindful of the human being on the other end of the search query.

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3 elevated ideas from 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:46:00 +0000

'Tis the season to reflect and "force abandon" the bloat, the bogus, and the banal of the year behind. As we edit and prune in preparation for the year ahead, I'll offer up ~~6 ideas,~~ nah just 3, ideas that changed my life in 2009:

#1 - It is easier to be a prophet than a saint.

M. Scott Peck said it best, but it is my family and close friends who remind me every day that living well and generously is less about being clever than it is about being consistent and actively creating a life of purpose and meaning. This quote reminds me to stay grounded in the face of change.

#2 - "[We just don't] fathom ... that most big dreams originate in someone's living room with a small group of people, regardless of where they come from or how they are dressed." (p. 50, The Blue Sweater)

Innovation and progress are fertile, close-to-the-ground energies with social dimensions. This quote reminds me to get intimate, to share out in order to dream big. If you are interested in catching an in-depth glimpse into these social dynamics at work, read The Blue Sweater. In it, Jaqueline Novogratz, treats us to an inspiring account of her search for an end to global poverty. The book is a rare first person account of the sacrifices and celebrations a social entrepeneur makes on her way to manifesting her own authentic leadership style.

#3 - "... We love to talk on things we don't know about." (Ten Thousand Words, by The Avett Brothers) Listen to this track.

I joined The Conversation in a big way this year because Twitter gave me a mic. Mostly, the conversations have been educational and entertaining. As I participate, however, I worry about how the acceleration of information will impact us long term. The fast pace seems likely to destabilize institutions and economic pipelines in ways we won't understand until significant compression has occurred. That said, these are exciting times and there is no turning back.

Best wishes for 2010 and thanks for reading in 2009!

Gardeners call it pruning: Forced abandonment for 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:49:00 +0000

In Living in More than One World, Bruce Rosenstein captures the essence of Peter Drucker's lifelong quest to teach managers that "living in more than one world," means letting go often and with mindfulness.

Gardeners call the letting go process "pruning." Parents call it "grounding." Peter Drucker upped the ante and called it "forced abandonment."

But there is a difference between me pruning a tree and me force abandoning my long held plan to accomplish X or Y in my lifetime. The latter takes a lot more chutzpah.

The season between Thanksgiving and New Year's is a wonderful time for reflection and rebalancing. Perhaps instead of a New Year's resolution this year, we should think about our possible forced abandonments. Could be just the trick.

____________

“The educated person will…have to be prepared to live and work simultaneously in two cultures— that of the ‘intellectual’ who focuses on words and ideas, and that of the ‘manager’ who focuses on people and work.”

— Peter F. Drucker, Post-Capitalist Society

The Drucker Institute

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Rosabeth Moss Kanter's 15-minute competitive advantage

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Just like your children need to be able to understand and incorporate changes in roles and expectations at home, so do your clients need to understand and incorporate the innovations you present to them before they will support you. This is especially important for innovations within the health care system.

For inspiration, here is Rosabeth Moss Kanter's short list of innovations most likely to succeed at gaining the support of your customers. They are fiendishly simple:

Trial-able: The idea or product can be demonstrated on a pilot basis. Customers can see it in action first and incorporate it on a small scale before committing to replace everything.
Divisible: It can be adopted in segments or phases. Users can ease into it, a step at a time. They can even use it in parallel with current solutions.
Reversible: If it doesn't work, it's possible to return to pre-innovation status. Eventually you want life to be unimaginable without it, but at least in theory, it's possible to go back to zero.
Tangible: It offers concrete results that can be seen to make a difference in something that users need and value.
Fits prior investments: The idea builds on "sunk costs" or actions already taken, so it looks like not much change is involved.
Familiar: It feels like things that people already understand, so it is not jarring to use. It is consistent with other experiences, especially successful ones.
Congruent with future direction: It is in line with where things are heading anyway. It doesn't require people to rethink their priorities or pathways, even though of course it changes things.
Positive publicity value: It will make everyone look good.

I hope you'll read the entire article, "Find the 15-Minute Competitive Advantage." Ms. Kanter is one of the finest business writers out there.

BIO: Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide for over 25 years. The former Editor of Harvard Business Review (1989-1992), Professor Kanter has been named to The Times of London list of the “50 most powerful women in the world”.
Her latest book is SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good. At Harvard, she is chair and director of the Advanced Leadership Initiative, a University-wide faculty group aimed at deploying a leadership force of experienced leaders who can address challenging national and global problems in their next stage of life.

A vegetarian driving a Hummer

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:56:00 +0000

I recently heard that a vegetarian driving a Hummer has a lower carbon footprint than a meat eater driving a Prius.

Another person close to me mentioned that journalists are just like polar bears with shrinking habitats; they get trapped floating on smaller and smaller ice masses and ultimately have no way back to shore.

I also heard (from a successful tech entrepreneur) that as soon as one starts blogging about domestic life, one is . . . cooked.

And it's this last piece of accepted "wisdom" that begs a reset. Here's why:

If every successful tech entrepreneur started blogging about his or her home life in an earnest, open forum, I am convinced we'd surface innovation that had organic appeal to human lives.

I have to wonder what that guy was so afraid of when he rejected the "literary domestic's" approach to the world. Perhaps the topic hit him too close to home.

Surely, there are literary domestics and technologists out there who are engaging in the deeper questions. Here's a question for them:

"Why would a vegetarian drive a Hummer in the first place?"

Does conventional medicine "colonize" patients?

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:41:00 +0000

This morning I had a micro-"aha" moment. I caught a glimpse of insight into why the health care industry, providers, and patients remain tangled within such a complex (and deadly) riptide. This is by no means a finished thought, just an attempt to draw on the essence of one well known historial framework to understand where we are today:

Could conventional medical culture be understood as a system of "colonization"?
Working within that conceptual framework, are educated health care providers colonized to an equal degree as patients?
How has the "colonization" (and resulting fragmentation) of health care providers and their patients served the interests and the longevity of the Colony?
What would it take to disrupt the colonized settlement?

While some health consumers call for revolt, revolutions, and rights, the truth is that they (like providers) remain dependent on the very goods and services supplied by the Colony.

Would open and free access to data disrupt that dependency? How?

***

Hat tip to @NancyShute for the inspirational coffee we had this morning.

Farms and fields and family

noreply@blogger.com (Christine Kraft) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:20:00 +0000

This morning we drove out to Sugarloaf Mountain, MD to see our friend David at his bountiful farm and market on Comus Road. What a lovely excursion except that the kids had a loud case of the "gimmes":

I want that 60 lb. pumpkin
I'm hungry, let's get cider
can we?
could we?
when? . . .

Why? I steamed silently. Why must we bring all of the city's materialism with us wherever we go? Don't they get that farms are sacred? Haven't I been pushing that hard enough?

And that's when I had to lighten up. Farms are not sacred to children. They are seen (at least by my children) as liberating spaces, with room for all to be him/herself. The sensory triggers kids encounter on the farm are expressed transparently; the fear, the joy, the boredom.

Gross: There's mud everywhere.

You guys think farms are so great. (eyes rolling)
Watch out for those bees!
I want that $60 pumpkin.
You have too many rules, mom.

We did our browsing, helped David unload a few fresh pumpkins from his tractor, then headed along the country roads to the next stop. That's when I heard my son say, "I want a farm someday." Comforting words, I thought. Then a twinkle rose up to my eye.

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