MANSFIELD — Six-word stories are quite short. But they can hold extraordinary power.
The concept isn’t very practical in journalism, but became a creative way to share the heart of OhioHealth during its annual Prism Awards on Oct. 2. In the weeks leading up to the awards, OhioHealth invited Larry Smith, creator of the Six-Word Memoir Project, to craft six-word stories of how associates live the values of Prism.
“We’re all about stories, and about how we’re fulfilling missions here with patients and with how we treat our fellow associates,” said Christina Thompson, media relations and communications consultant with OhioHealth. “There are so many personal stories walking into our buildings, that it’s great to see some of them shared.”
OhioHealth’s system-wide Prism Awards recognize the “extraordinary and inspirational ways” associates model the health system’s core values. These core values are integrity, compassion, excellence and stewardship.
There are 15 business units in the OhioHealth system throughout the state, including Mansfield and Shelby Hospitals. Each business unit selected one individual and one team as winners for each of the four OhioHealth core values, a total of 120 business unit winners.
Among the winners for each business unit, one individual and one team winner were selected as a system winner for each of the four core values. Systems winners were announced on stage the evening of the Prism Awards ceremony.
OhioHealth Shelby Hospital’s infusion team within the hospital’s cancer services won the Prism system award for compassion. Team members honored were Jenna Stacklin, Jessica Bolen and Kate Pry, who touched the lives of a terminally ill patient, his family and his friends when they organized a full-scale graduation for him to see his youngest son graduate from high school. They went beyond their clinical duties and did everything in their power to make this patient’s wish come true.
One of OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital’s doctors, Gavin Baumgardner D.O. was part of a team that won the Prism system award for excellence. As part of a drug shortage management team, Baumgardner helped reshaped the OhioHealth drug shortage landscape and brought the health system together to find solutions to drug shortages. They found solutions not only within Pharmacy Services, but across the clinical and operational landscape as a whole. The team was able to identify the issues, weather the situation and create positive outcomes.
Helping to tell these stories in six words or less was Larry Smith, who launched the six-word challenge on Twitter in 2006. Since then, Smith has put together nine books of six-word memoirs, and more than a million six-word stories have been shared across the internet.
Smith said he has worked with OhioHealth in the past to bring the concept of storytelling with six words to different parts of the company, particularly in the marketing and communications departments.
“When OhioHealth was talking about a way to engage lots of people for the annual Prism awards to celebrate the associates, the nice thing about six words is at a big celebration like Prism you can’t involve everyone because time is limited,” Smith said. “But if you ask everyone to answer a question in six words, suddenly hundreds of people can have a say in what they believe in.”
OhioHealth associates across the entire system were asked to finish the statement, “I believe…” which only gives them four words to work with. But Smith noted the constraint is actually part of the fun.
“It helps them start writing, it helps them sum up ideas,” he said. “It’s a catalyst and a way to bring things in, like spark and essence. The essence is key.”
Smith said he heard from neurosurgeons all the way to payroll. He spoke to nurses about why they loved waking up in the morning. He even spoke to someone in housekeeping, whose six-word memoir was, “I believe my job is important.”
“There was no part of her that thought, ‘I’m just a housekeeper,’ and when I work with companies, I’m just as interested in the intern’s point of view as I am the CEO’s,” Smith said. “Wherever you are in the corporate ladder, just by being asked what you believe in, you feel like you matter.”
Smith does not write six-word stories in fiction. He wants the stories to be true and personal, whether you’re a professional writer or someone who despises the craft. The best six-word memoirs, he said, are ones that feel personal and singular to the author, or ones that are relatable to the masses.
“That’s the fun thing about the form – it’s a lean, easy and effective way for people to be part of something bigger,” Smith said.
