Insider Newsletter from Information Mapping

Information Mapping, Inc.
307 Waverley Oaks Road
Waltham, MA 02452 U.S.A.

T: 781.547.3100
or 800.INFOMAP
F: 781.547.3200
E: inquiry@infomap.com
W: www.infomap.com

October 2007	www.infomap.com	Vol. 15, No. 3

Case Study: Improving the Effectiveness of DCH’s Leadership Development Program

by David Singer, Contributing Writer

DCH Health System and the Information Mapping Method
Gary Harrelson of DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, AL, submitted the winning entry in the competition for this year's IMAP Award. This award goes to the entrant who submits a document that our expert panel identifies as the best application of the Information Mapping Method.

DCH Health System is a publicly owned healthcare system serving Tuscaloosa County and surrounding rural western Alabama communities. The DCH network, consisting of four non-profit hospitals, has a total capacity of over 1,000 beds and employs 5,000 healthcare workers.

As DCH’s Director of Organizational Development and Education, Gary Harrelson is responsible for a wide range of employee training and development programs. His background includes extensive clinical work in sports medicine as well as a Doctorate in Education. Gary is an enthusiastic advocate for Information Mapping techniques. He and his staff have attended Information Mapping learning programs, and they apply the method to their own training design and development projects.

Improving the effectiveness of DCH’s Leadership Development Program
Gary’s entry into the competition for the IMAP Award was a participant’s manual from DCH’s Leadership Development Program. The program, which focuses on leadership skills development, consists of three phases, and is attended by newly hired leaders, as well as identified future leaders in the DCH organization. The manual Gary submitted is used in Phase Two of the program, Building Interpersonal Competencies. It is a revision of the original, conventionally written manual. Gary provided us with a copy of the original manual as well as his revision.

The original manual is a cumbersome document that was written by several authors and contains information presented in a mixture of styles and formats. Users were often confused by the contrasting presentation strategies and differences in terminology. Many said that they were unsure of how to navigate within the manual. They also reported that it was clumsy and awkward to handle.

The Revised Manual – an IMAP Award Winner
Gary told us, “When we decided to do this revision, our objective was to streamline the manual and give it a more professional look and feel. We wanted to present the information so that people could quickly find what they needed and readily understand what they were reading. We also wanted to reduce production costs by standardizing the formats. I believe we succeeded, and that Information Mapping helped us to achieve all of this.”

Our panel of experts agreed with him: the revision of the manual contrasts sharply with the original. It is compact, professional looking, very clearly written and quite well organized. We were impressed by the lean, uniformly presented content. It was not surprising to learn from Gary that feedback from participants in the Leadership Development Program has been excellent.

“Our users have reacted really well to this new manual,” he said. “They like to work with it, because they can easily locate the information they need. The style differences are gone, and using Information Mapping principles to reorganize the content tightened it up and made everything flow more logically. Our expectation is that this manual will make our ‘onboarding’ process go more smoothly.”

Gary also noted that participants in the Leadership Development Program who have the older manual often tell their instructors that they would much prefer to receive the version developed using the Information Mapping Method.

Additional Applications of Information Mapping Techniques
The award-winning manual represents only a portion of what Gary and his team are doing to change the way DCH communicates. He believes that the Information Mapping Method could benefit other areas within the DCH system. As others see what the Organizational Development team is achieving with Information Mapping techniques, they become enthusiastic and want to learn more.

Gary told us that his team has recently begun to revise their department policies and procedures manual. This project is just getting under way, but early results are already quite encouraging. Gary reported that an internal audit team reviewing the scholarship and tuition policy developed using the Information Mapping Method called it “…the best revision they’ve seen in 15 years.”

We at Information Mapping, Inc. congratulate Gary on his outstanding application of Information Mapping, and look forward to hearing from him about current and future projects involving the Method.

This message is privileged, confidential, and intended for the addressee only. If you have received this communication in error and are not the intended recipient, immediately notify the sender and delete this message from your computer. Your dissemination, modification, printing or copying of this message is prohibited. The contents of this message may contain personal views, which are not the views of Information Mapping, Inc. unless specifically stated. In compliance with Public Law No. 108-187 effective January 1, 2004.