KnowledgeNudge.com is Our KT Fail

By Patrick Faucher

The cardinal rule you learn in Blogging 101 is to post regularly. So that’s what we did when we launched this site in advance of CHI’s open house. We posted regularly. For a week.

Months later, in January, we scrambled together a few more posts (hey, nobody ever sticks to their New Years resolution anyway). And then we fell into election season. And then our editor (okay, I) left for an entire month. Then, the annual reporting season “snuck up” on us. And I’m sure we can think of a few other excuses to add in there too — but at the end of the day, let’s call it what it is… we suffered a KT Fail.

What is a KT Fail?

A KT fail is when you have nothing but the best intentions for a project — you plan to follow best practice to bridge the know-do gap. But instead, you fall into the gap yourself.

It can happen to the best of us. For some, it’s a project you’re doing on the side of your desk that simply gets swallowed up by your regular work (that’s us!). Others become overwhelmed with the perceived complexities of patient engagement and throw their hands up in defeat. A few of us have followed the ISLAGIATT (It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time) Theory, only to discover it actually wasn’t. And of course, there’s the occasional researcher who believes they’re doing innovative KT, only to be told somebody had already tried that, and failed.

Embrace the Fail

Regardless of the reason, sometimes, we misstep and fall into the Valley of KT Fails, staring back up at the “know” ledge to the left, and the “do” gap to the right.

The first step toward getting out of that valley is admitting your KT Fail — don’t keep pouring resources into a lost cause, hoping you can will your way out of the problem. Embrace it, and learn from it. For instance, while we knew it was important to build up a reserve of content we could post when we got too busy, we were either too optimistic in our ability to find the time to write, or too quick to launch the site before we had a chance to build up our content inventory.

Instead of haphazardly posting when we can, we’ve learned our lesson. This time, we’re building up a proper reserve of blog posts — including a wealth of Patient Engagement resources. We’re also developing a robust content schedule to ensure we have a steady stream of posts for you to enjoy on a weekly basis.

Or at least, that’s the plan.

Tell us about your #KTfail

In the meantime, we’d love to hear about your #KTfail. What were you hoping to accomplish? What went wrong? What did you learn? Write your KT fail in the comments below, or Tweet your KT Fail @KnowledgeNudge #KTfail.

About the Author

Patrick Faucher is the Creative & Strategic Services Lead for the Knowledge Translation platform at the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI). A communications strategist with over 10 years experience, he specializes in creating content engineered to build awareness, understanding, engagement, and adoption through an approach rooted in design thinking (rapid prototyping) and behavioural insights (nudging).