We’ve established a Social Media Chamber of Commerce at Humana, because we’re trying to wrap our heads around this social media enigma for our unique lines of business. Last week I wrote on Crumple it Up that we live tweeted our Kick-Off Meeting minutes and followed up that post with some lessons learned on my project management blog, LouisivllePM. The story got picked up by PSFK, The Fast Forward blog and The Harbrooke Group, and the general sentiment in the Twitterverse was positive.
We don’t know where this will take us… We’re learning. However, a conversation is starting to take shape around meeting speakers/facilitators needing to get used to this new form of engagement during presentations. We think it’s cool to be involved, in some way, with pushing micro-blogging in a new direction.
As weird as it sounds, we really appreciate Jen’s opinion. In fact, it’s the purpose behind this post. Our second #hcoc meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, March 5th from 3:00pm to 5:00pm EST, and we’re really excited about it. We have a lot of ground to cover as an organization, now that the kick-off meeting is out of the way, and @RickMurray from Edelman Digital has been invited to sit in as our special guest.
The question is, does anybody else really care?
We’re trying to create a culture at Humana that engages anyone who has something to contribute to the conversation. Following that train of thought, we’d like to hear what you think. Should we continue to live tweet the Humana Social Media Chamber of Commerce meeting minutes under the #hcoc hashtag? What else should we be doing? What experiment have you always wanted to try, but couldn’t get buy-in for from your company? And what, if anything, do you want to know about our approach?
If you’re sick of us already, that’s totally understandable – @chimoose, @naimul and I get sick of each other after spending 15 minutes together in the same conference room. You won’t hurt our feelings. ;)
The future of #hcoc is in your hands. We’d love to get your feedback below and will proceed according to your inputs. Please let us know what you think.
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
To be clear, there is a distinction between social health and socialized health. I want to discuss the former in this post as the country argues over the latter. Fair? So healthcare companies like Cigna and WellPoint are doing innovative things in the realm of health and social technologies, and we’re definitely doing our fair share of exploring this new frontier at Humana.
We all have tools at our disposal that enable us to connect to one another quickly and easily, but they are just tools. Our question at Crumple it Up has become: how do we create a health epidemic focused on life and happiness? What can serve as the catalyst?
In my opinion, one catalyst will be social health with social technologies used as an enabler.
Active lifestyles lead to healthy hearts and minds, and one way that makes leading an active lifestyle enjoyable is to share the experiences with friends and family members. It stands to reason that if two people enjoy doing an activity by themselves, sharing that experience with one another will enhance the overall experience and make them both want to perform the activity together more often.
To connect social with activity is to also connect social with health.
From my own personal anecdotal archives, I remember while growing up that my mother used to walk around the neighborhood with friends and neighbors far more frequently then she would by herself. That time served two purposes:
1. It was a time for her to catch up on the local gossip
2. It was good for her.
She would coordinate her walks with friends because she knew it was good for her, but she would follow through because she had someone to do it with… When I left the house and went off to college, I refused to miss my standard daily workouts with friends at the fitness center for similar reasons.
In both cases, the chance to be social outweighed the need to be healthy. However, in both cases the activity generated from being social directly led to healthy behavior.
I want to explore this concept further on Crumple it Up, but would like to stop here to find out what you think? Is there a tie between social and health or am I off my rocker? What is your evidence, anecdotal or otherwise?
Photo by: discoodoni
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
It’s no secret that the world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace. But for those of us in healthcare, it would be easy to think that things haven’t changed all that much. The doctors and insurance companies still have the lion’s share of the knowledge, power, data and money, and patients have to fend for themselves.
But things are changing . . . and they’re changing faster than most people realize. Wired magazine ran an interesting mini-feature contrasting the BMI of the average American woman vs. a rather unrealistic “female ideal” [OK, it was Playboy centerfolds]. As you might imagine, the two diverge rapidly over time. And the fact is that our current health system was really set up to handle acute care (see Michael Porter) . . . Uncle Jeb dropped the plow on his foot; Sally Jane got smallpox – better go see the sawbones. But today, our system is drowning under a tidal wave of chronic care needs, 70% of which are driven by individual behaviors. We’ve already mentioned the cost of obesity in this space, so I won’t belabor the point here.
The point I WILL belabor here (and you knew there had to be one, didn’t you?) is that the way we think about designing for health hasn’t kept pace with people’s needs. Given the massive need to deal with chronic care, it’s no wonder that 99.7% of the healthcare system is focused on improving it, and reducing the cost of doing so. I suppose that’s as it should be; the people in the direst need are the ones that should get most of the attention. But given that so many of them are there at least in part because of the choices they’ve made, shouldn’t more of us be focused on those choices?
I know what you’re going to say . . . there are a TON of people focused on changing health behavior. And they are – they have been for years. In fact, this very innovation center was talking about changing health behavior when I joined up at Humana almost 5 years ago. But it hasn’t helped much – the problems continue to get worse, at an ever faster rate. Which is why we’re operating under the following hypothesis:
CHANGING Health Behavior
Once it became clear that our lifestyles were the primary cause for our chronic unhealthiness, the health system started looking for ways to “change health behavior.” And when someone in the health system starts talking about health behavior change, my ears prick up, because it’s generally code for, “I’m going to try and get you to do something that I think is good for you.” And it typically involves drowning me in information – most of which isn’t relevant to me, and none of which I’m actually seeking. This is where most of the health system is today.
Making HEALTHY stuff more fun
After a while some folks started figuring out that force-feeding information to people – and telling them to change what they were doing – wasn’t really getting the job done. So, they trotted out the old behavior change pig, applied some lipstick, and presented it anew. Most folks who are selling wellness programs and building catch-the-fruit type games have reached this level. It is more appealing, and it probably helps more people, but the problems still haven’t been fixed. At its core, it’s still asking people to change their lives . . . which I believe is a losing proposition more often than not. A catch-the-fruit game is still just trying to force-feed me information about nutrition, and it’s not really all that engaging.
Making FUN stuff healthier
It’s a subtle distinction, this transposition of two words. But there is a world of difference in the design outputs once you’ve made the switch. Our hypothesis is that the only way to really reach people is to go where they already are. To look at what they already do, care about and enjoy – and make it a little healthier. Or even better, help them to do it better or more often because they’re a little healthier. The reason it’s so different is because it’s not asking people to change their lives. And we think that’ll make an enormous difference in terms of the uptake and stickiness of our products.
How has this manifested itself? Well, in 2008 it looked a lot like bikesharing . The one overwhelming thing we’ve heard from our riders is that they’d forgotten how much fun biking really is. Look for bikesharing in a city near you from bcycle .
In 2009, Making Fun Stuff Healthy looks like Games . In addition to our first facebook game and our first casual game , our signature Horsepower Challenge will launch in 20 cities in the US this spring – reaching 2,000 kids and their families. In 2010, it’s my dearest hope that you’ll see fun and healthy stuff injected into social networks on a scale that’s never been seen before.
The point is this: The majority of the healthcare system is devoted to improving chronic care – and that’s as it should be. But the rest of us are ready for a social movement in health just like the ones we’ve seen in other industries – media, retail, advertising, music, TV, etc. We’re going to continue to make products, services, businesses and networks that we hope will feed that revolution.
And we’d love for you to be a part of it. If you’re into changing the world through health and happiness, join our CrumpleItUp Innovation Network on LinkedIn.
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Do you have the winter blues? If you’re like most of us in the Midwest Winter can be a bit tedious and have limited options for staying active with the exception of going to the local gym or the occasional brisk winter jog.
If you reside in the Northern regions your response to this posting will be duhh, and if you’re in the Sun Belt, sorry this one won’t help you since it doesn’t get cold enough for this activity. I hope you don’t feel excluded, but you’re the Sunbelt! Jump on that bike in your garage and go for a ride. For those of us in that middle sweet spot I have a suggestion for you…. Snow Tubing.
This past weekend I headed out with four other couples and checked out Paoli Peaks, a small seasonal ski resort in our area. We had a complete blast. Tubing is much easier that skiing and virtually anyone can do it. Just be ready to reconnect with your inner child and think of snow days gone by.
Our group had every fitness level covered, from the person who is fit enough to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to the glorified office warrior like me. Everyone had a great time, and was flying down the slope within five minutes of arriving. To accommodate the various fitness levels of the guest, the resort had a conveyor system going to take you and your tube back to the top of the hill once you arrived at the bottom.
My inner geek was curious how much walking I’d be doing that evening, so I wore my virgin lifecare pedometer. Even with the conveyor system, in two hours I had taken over 5,500 steps and really didn’t even notice. When our slope time was up everyone was tired but smiling as we headed towards the cars for the ride home.
I was curious what other options where out there as I wrote this post and found a good site called snowplaces.com that does a nice job listing options that might be close you. If you want a fun healthy activity that gets you out of the house in the winter, give tubing a try!
Photo by: terren in Virginia
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Recently, Chris Palmisano, one of our managers from 