Storyboards to Summarize Completed QI Projects

Sun, 06/07/2015 - 11:00 -- gkroberts

When we first adopted our QI plan, 1 year ago, we were excited to use the storyboard template to display our completed PDCA cycle in a "pretty" way. However, now that we have distributed some completed storyboards as handouts and as large posters, we have received feedback suggesting that although the storyboard is pretty, it is not effective in communicating the project results. This may be because there are lots of words/images/information in a small area. Any suggestions for a more effective summary display?

Thank you.

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ksperanske's picture
Submitted by ksperanske on

We too have experienced that feedback for our storyboards. There is a desire to incorporate more data and focus on the project results but in a way that it is aesthetically pleasing and summarizing. I am searching for others templates to see how they are accomplishing this.

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Katie Speranske
Program Assistant, Office of Performance Improvement
Maricopa County Department of Public Health
4041 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85012
(602) 506-9349| KatieSperanske@mail.maricopa.gov

Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Katie, I have received the exact same feedback. The only other template I have found is the A3 template for Lean projects (www.lean.org/downloads/a3_word_template.doc). Although it is not as visually appealing as the storyboard, it is effective. I was considering merging the storyboard and A3 to create a display that is effective and engaging.

With just the storyboard, it may be helpful to shorten the space allotted for the "plan" phase and increase the space for the "do" and "check" phases. This would help if there were less words and more visuals. If you find something else that you like, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share it with me and the PHQIX community. Thanks!

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by Carlylb on

You may want to try posting your storyboards on a shared drive or on a webpage.  You would put your link/webpage address on the storyboad and people can then access it electronically by their phone, Ipad, or computer.  Once it is in an electronic format, you can create hyperlinks within the storyboard to other larger scaled graphics or additional pages of information.

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Rhonda Bartow

Submitted by gkroberts on

That's a great idea, Rhonda. I hadn't thought of that. Is this how you display your completed QI projects? If so, have you received any feedback about this format?

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov

Submitted by sarahacker on

We've been having a similar issue, but it has more to do with the standard storyboard format that we adopted (the template that is available at NACCHO and NNPHI). The word document with its columns is frustrating to format, especially if you want to add a chart or image. We're talking about creating a different template, but wanted to see if anyone has found or developed anything better. Thoughts?

Thanks

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Submitted by tkane on

You are not alone in asking this question!

Once as a QI coordinator in the LHD setting, I facilitated a quality team that wrestled with the same question. We were new to QI and assumed that each improvement initiative needed to be summarized w/ a story board. We received feedback from quality team members that the story boards were "too busy" and hard to understand. But the most significant outcry was from QI project teams, particularly project managers, who were responsible for developing story boards upon project completion. They called on the quality team for changes because the story board development process was too burdensome.

This feedback caused us to ask a series of questions: Who are the customers? What do the customers actually need? Are we investing too much time in story board development? Are the other options for communicating project findings? 

As we explored these questions, we learned: 

  1. In many cases, we were creating story boards for the sake of creating story boards.
  2. Story boards were: shared with the project team; sometimes used as a training aid; used for a 5-minute presentation to the quality team; sometimes printed and posted in a public place; but normally just filed away!
  3. The quality team - who had the responsibility of reviewing all completed projects - thought the story boards were not the most effective method to share project results. They actually preferred a face-to-face discussion with the project team or manager to review: 1) What was the problem? 2) How did you address the problem? 3) What were the measurable results and other outcomes? and 4) What's next?

In summary, the quality team agreed that there is tremendous value in sharing the results of improvement projects - BUT - a story board is not a 1-size-fits-all approach for sharing project outcomes.

We walked away with a process new process that was: 1) less of a burden for QI project teams, 2) met the customer needs and 3) reduced process steps. 

Good luck! 

Ty Kane

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Submitted by gkroberts on

Hi Sara, I understand your frustration. I have been using a Microsoft Publisher storyboard template that is easy to format with images/tables. I would be happy to share, if you like.

Ty, thank you for sharing your experience with this in so much detail. I like the series of questions you asked and 3 conclusions your team made. They are exactly how we feel about the storyboard. What was the new process that you walked away with? Did you just decide not to make storyboards anymore?

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Gurleen Roberts, MPH
Director of Quality Management
Cobb & Douglas Public Health
Marietta, GA
gurleen.roberts@dph.ga.gov