Why Communication Matters with Brian Morgan | E. 58

Explore the impact of the written word and what it means for healthcare. 

 

Episode Introduction 

 

In this episode, Lisa Miller, Managing Director at SpendMend, interviewed Brian Morgan to learn more about the principles and mission of Think Deeply, Write Clearly. Topics include the impact of language and communication on business credibility, why comprehension of the written word belongs only to the reader, how better communication could improve healthcare, and why innovation isn’t always exclusively about technology. 

 

Show Topics

 

 

• Why we’re good at writing, but terrible at thinking for writing

• Solving the challenges in the drafting stage

• Comprehension belongs to the reader alone

• Communication at discharge is a big challenge for hospitals 

• Treating patients as more than a transaction

• Our default position is to protect ourselves

• The impact of hospital bills 

 

 

 

06:24 Why we’re good at writing, but terrible at thinking for writing. 

Brian explained how the language and communication we use can create a business credibility or cultural problem. 

 

‘'…..we can run through life where we have provable statements that are not useful statements. And we aren't very good at saying, "Well, wait. What is this problem in its entirety? What are all of the factors that go into that problem? What are all the factors that go into that decision? And then, how do we curate all of that information down to show not what we believe, but why we believe that to be true and a trustworthy decision for you?" And that would be the same in real estate as it would be in a hospital as it is for somebody working on their marketing or anything else. How do we create trustworthy conclusions, where people see the transparent assessment as opposed to hide the transparent assessment because there's a certain amount of data that is not realistically supporting facts….there are cultural ramifications for this. And so I would say as a rule, we have not treated language and writing and communication with nearly the business credibility problem that it creates or the economic problem that it creates, and certainly, the cultural problem that it creates…We're very good at writing, but we're terrible at thinking for writing. So I decided to take that on.’’

 

 

09:30 Solving the challenges in the drafting stage

Brian noted that templates must help people think well, rather than short-cut the critical thinking process. 

 

‘’…there are a ton of factors that go into that drafting stage that we hardly ever talk about, and many of them are just business process communication things. For instance, what would normally happen is somebody says, "Well, we have a template for that." And so we say, "Well, okay. That's fine. Let's grab the template." And the template is going to say something like "insert site description here." Well, there's a lot of ways you can write a site description. And the client wants it a certain way, and somebody who's been in the business for six months who's drafting this document because they're inexpensive and we think that that's the way to use money and usability well, is to have that person draft the document. And that person drafts it the way they want it. And now the manager and the editor are going to spend a ton of expensive time fixing that and r