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Doctors as Clients – Exercise

Sharon — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:04:32 +0000

Lots of people wonder how well projective techniques work with physicians. I often get questions about whether
or not doctors will “play.”

What drives that question is the belief that professionals are trained to only react to facts. Moreover, there’s a sense from many researchers that it’s almost insulting to invite physicians to free associate and divulge their real feelings. It’s almost as if they’re above the emotional and visceral.

Yet isn’t it a combination of looking at the data and one’s intuitive sense that makes for the best medicine? Good doctors avoid becoming walking brains and stay connected to their hearts and instincts when investigating issues with their patients.

Over the years I’ve successfully employed virtually all the same projective techniques I’ve used with patients and consumers with physicians. And, interestingly, the vast majority of doctors find them intriguing and a RELIEF! They get to take off their fact finding hat for a few minutes and invite their creative process. While at first it might be a little strange, a little different, being playful is a wonderful departure for them from the seriousness of everyday work.

So, you’ll hear doctors voices become animated as they tell you what they see in a guided imagery. Their eyes brighten in choosing IconiCards™ to add to a collage that depicts how it feels to work with various conditions. They lean into the table to tell you the story they’ve just created in their imagination. [Compare that to the lean back, arms crossed posture, dispassionate voice you often see and hear when they're asked to respond to a medication profile.] By just presenting facts and asking for a reaction, we invite detached involvement and then wonder why it’s so hard to read what physicians really want.

Here’s a quick, easy to administer and depthful exercise to help understand how a physician is really thinking and feeling about a category and possible solutions.

Lay out a deck of IconiCards™ [or any deck of archetypes] on a table close to the interviewing station. As part of the introduction, show the doctor the archetype cards and ask him to pick a card which might represent any of the following.

The condition that’s the subject of the interview, e.g., hypertension AND can be any condition/disease state
A typical hypertension patient
The doctor in the role of treating hypertension
A preferred medication in the doc’s armamentarium

Sometimes, the participant will ask if more than one card may be chosen. Answer that “up to 2 would be fine”. Most will select just one.

When the IconiCards™ have been selected, have the doctor bring them back to her/his seat. Ask him to give 5 adjectives describing just the CARD. After that has been done for each card, and you’ve written those down for reference, play back the adjectives for each issue, one at a time, and ask the physician how the archetype and those words tie back to condition, patient, etc. You’ll start to see a textured picture emerging.

Then ask the doctor to tell you a story about the 4 characters chosen. Tell them “all stories have a beginning, middle and end and usually have a point of tension that get’s resolved”. Encourage them to tell you a story about the chosen cards (rather than a real story from their practice) so that we can more likely draw out the emotional components to the story and not just a step by step account of what happened.

After the doctor creates and shares their narrative, once again, ask them to tie it back to the condition, patient and current solutions. You’ll hear different themes with different problems. Difficulty in diagnosing that leaves them feeling frustrated and inadequate. Excitement in getting to work on a rare problem that, once diagnosed, has great outcomes. Dismissiveness and boredom with the same old, same old from patients who tend to be non compliant. Despair that they usually push away when they want to help and there’s no good solution. You’ll hear humanness that may touch your heart or may turn you off. Doctors attitudes and feelings run the gamut of human reactions.

Be prepared to melt with compassion or be shocked at the seedier side of medical practice. Also ask what’s missing in this drama. This will give you ideas for how an ideal or different medication could be served up to better solve the problem/better treat the condition.

There are lots of projective techniques you can use. IconiCards™ is one I love because it’s so quick to get to feelings and images, but there are many different approaches.

Remember, that the more creative you are willing to be in crafting interesting exercises for your study, the more depthful, intuitive and emotional will be the responses, EVEN and perhaps especially with physicians who enjoy the opportunity to recognize and liberate their whole and original selves.

Emotional Insight Magic NEW!

Sharon — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:01:15 +0000

People are still wanting to sign up for the May 30th IconiCards™ Insight Mining Machine class but it has been filled.

While we can’t accommodate you this month and because there has been such interest, we’re pleased to announce that we will be holding another session later on this summer.

It’s going to be on Saturday July 18

Save the date and Reserve Now!

IconiCards for Emotional Insight Magic

Dr. Sharon Livingston
DATE: Saturday, July 18th
TIME: One Day Training
LOCATION: My office just outside Manchester NH
Early Bird Cost: $997 before June 15th [other wise $1250]

A special invitation to you to learn great ways to use IconiCards.

Come to this one day training session to learn great techniques for using archetypes in your work. You’ll be amazed at the variety of exercises and how well you can use them to gain deep insights into how people feel and relate to products, categories and interpersonal relationships.

Because the characters on the cards are so meaningful, the stories that come out of people’s experiences are more authentic and useful. It might seem like magic, but it’s not. It’s science.

Come learn this fascinating yet easy method to gain incredible vision. You will come out of this one day seminar with:

A good understanding of the importance of archetypes
Confidence that you can use this tool effectively in your profession
Stories about current brands and their archetypes
Ideas for applying archetypes to your
- marketing
- branding
- new product development
- research
- teaching
- counseling
An exercise you’ve created for your own particular challenges
Ways to analyze the wealth of information
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A complimentary box of IconiCards™!
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The NEW class is taking place on July 18th

Sharonl@tlgonline.com – 603.537.0775

Call or email NOW to reserve a space

Sharpen Your Skills and Increase Your Income

Sharon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:53:46 +0000

With the downturn in the economy, I’ve been getting a number of requests to do more live training events. It’s a time to improve skills, learn new ones and recreate yourself in order to add value to your clients.

So, in response to popular demand, here’s one of the courses, our Moderator Boot Camp. I’ll be telling you about another one on Archetypes in a separate newsletter…

One of the easiest ways to get more clients is also the simplest … “Be at the Top of Your Game” (and let the word get around).

In a recession, clients need to focus on smart spending … and that means choosing moderators who’ll get them the most bang for their buck. This does NOT mean low cost projects … this means moderators who REALLY know how to get at insights that build undying customer loyalty for the brand.

On June 11 – 14th, I’m going to be conducting a 4 day “Livingston Moderator Boot Camp” for a select group of no more than 12 people.

A detailed description can be found at www.projectivetechniques.com … but the short story is … you get ALL my secrets AND my passionate investment in YOUR business development for 4 days … you’ll walk away with skills and memories you’ll never forget.

Your investment, if you take the “early bird” registration register before 5/14/09 is only $2,995 ($3,995 thereafter) and includes breakfast and lunch each day. Additionally, if you send 2 people, the second one is half price!

But because the quality of each group participant affects the quality of everyone’s results, you can’t just buy in, you need to apply.

If you’re interested, RSVP ASAP please … the boot camp is strictly limited to 12 people. Just answer the questions below (in as much detail as you feel comfortable with please) … and email your reply to me at sharonl@tlgonline.com

1) How do you plan to utilize your skills as a moderator? In what
environment? Industries?

2) What is your most significant need for improvement?

3) What is your realistic gross income goal from qualitative research for
2009?

4) What, if any, previous moderator training have you taken?

5) What’s the single most important thing you hope to take away from the
training?

6) Your name, contact info, etc.

Even though I unfortunately can’t guarantee to accept everyone, I WILL reply to ALL applications, and at minimum, make a few suggestions to put you on the right path. (Thanks in advance for your understanding).