Iowa makes story telling a habit

I talked with Don McCormick, Public Information Officer, Des Moines IA Department of Public Health

For the past year, he has been working with public health staff in 91 counties who have been collecting stories.

They use a template to make collection easy and consistent.

What information is collected?
-Character(s): who this happened to
-Setting: where and when this took place
-Conflict: obstacle, barrier, or problem (Great that they spell out conflict!)
-Action: what happened
-Outcome(s): measurable/concrete evidence of change
-Relevance: connect the dots to the big picture, including how the outcome relates to the way you measure success or determine need
-Contact info and additional resources

Stories are collected in draft form and then tailored for specific audiences as the need arises.

What kinds of stories are collected? Success stories and stories that demonstrate need.

Two Magic Moments
1. The media called Don when President Obama had been quit for a year and asked “can you find somebody who has been quit for a year?” Don was able to look through the storybank stories and find someone who was a “home run”. He had been smoking 5 packs a day..including a half pack sometime after he went to sleep at night and before he woke up in the morning. The Iowa quitline had helped him quit.

2. The tobacco control annual report is due to the legislature. Usually this report would summarize data from the adult tobacco survey….but …there was a “screw up” with the data and it isn’t valid…in other words…they don’t have any data they can use. Instead of a catastrophe, Don has seized this opportunity to try the power of story. This year the report to the legislature will showcase 3 stories: one for each of the programs’ priority areas: youth prevention, cessation, and policy development.

Strengths:
Local Ownership
Stories are being collected and stored at the local level. The idea is that local health departments will feel these are “ our stories”

Changing behavior: a goal of the project is to make collecting stories a “habit”. To help this happen, staff at the local level are required to submit stories as part of their quarterly reports. ( In other words, they made a system change.)

Questions :
1.Are people at the local level using the stories? If so, how? According to a survey, 54% report using the stories at the local level ( 4% said “our stories, I thought they were your stories”) 43% not using stories yet.

2.Does staff get overwhelmed by the volume of stories? How do you organize stories so you can find what you need when you need it?

3.Waiting to craft the story has the benefit of tailoring a story for that audience and message…but there have been times when staff could not track down the protagonist when needed. Don estimates he is able to use 80% of the stories he has crafted. I wonder what the experience is like at the local level?

The contact person for the project is:
Don McCormick, Marketing Consultant, PIO
Iowa Dept. of Public Health
(515) 401-7016
Donald.McCormick@idph.iowa.gov