What's this PIE Model™ and what does it mean to me?

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What's this PIE Model™ and what does it mean to me?

As I have rolled out the introduction of The PIE Model™ the results have been, well, delicious!

Some read the article Slicing Through Complexity: The PIE Model for Care Management and Aging Patients in the CareManagement journal and have contacted me in pursuit of how to apply it in their work and in their lives.

Others are visiting the PIE page on my newly redesigned website to learn more and are downloading the freebie, the Peace of Mind Checklist for their first Taste of PIE. 

Allow me now to respond to the obvious and fundamental question: What is this pie model and what does it mean to me?

First the Model: It's a framework, a way of thinking, an approach to care or aging strategy that is easy and available to everyone. It was a happy moment when I realized that the letters in in PIE could stand for Professionals - Individuals - Everyone. 

Whether you are a professional involved in the care of a client, or you are helping with care for someone you love, or whether you are taking a look at your own care and aging strategy, PIE is for you!

It's nothing you have to learn or an undertaking to master. Simply use the concept as a guide and an overlay to help organize what is going on. The Pie Model™ conforms to your individual situation - and is therefore both custom and customizable.

Let's say you are involved in someone's care or planning or strategy. No matter who's PIE we are slicing we can take a look at the six slices to ensure that we have all the bases covered, that we have considered everything:  medical legal financial housing insurance and support. Everything falls into the six domains or “slices”.

Sometimes a pie is messy and the pieces are, shall we say, juicy.

They run into each other or all over the plate.

Sometimes PIE is served, sometimes PIE Is shared.

And the notion of PIE? You must admit: is a more light-hearted notion, carrying with it a plethora of opportunities for plays on words: Share, slice, serve it up, digest, “in the oven for you”, and more.  It is certainly effective in diffusing overwhelm, that is one of PIE’s most special features!  The feature that holds the biggest impact to me is: The PIE Model™ can samepage two or more people - in seconds!

With PIE a person can focus on this piece or that, for a problem solving, planning, and it can be divided up for research or with tasks.

We can make sure we have enough PIE, as in all the information captured. PIE can also help with tracking progress, the various slices to the whole PIE, and even efficiency, to ensure nothing falls between the cracks.

We can add PIE- topics to just about any conversation or circumstance, using it as a way to see the entire pie, or just a portion of it. We can focus on serving it, dividing it, or the sharing.

Then there is polishing off a great piece of PIE and feeling satisfied! We can share recipes with this PIE -idea, meaning sharing ideas and How To’s. We can tweak - we can make substitutions and improvements. The sharing of PIE and the action-parts is important but so could be the sharing of cautionary tales and certainly tales of triumph.

In our PIE-making. We gain experience and expertise, even better sharing.

For professionals -and let me now speak as one - PIE comes to mind for anybody who has ever had to do an intake. Weren't you concerned with making sure you captured all the information, whether that was to satisfy a form or to head toward the best outcome? We all wish to avoid a missing ingredient, or not understanding a factor that will affect our whole pie.

Our capture must be complete. PIE guides you in that capture and action that may follow.

How about conversations using those the six slices as topics? For choosing which slice to focus upon, or even which slices may be most important, first thing. PIE helps with prioritizing.

Need action steps for more research, or will you be delegating? It's all easier with The PIE Model™.

Then there’s tracking progress: Are all the slices covered? Is there anyone else that needs to be involved, that can help with a slice? Who do we invite to have PIE with us?

If another cook is being invited into the kitchen, don't you want a way to easily convey what you have on hand and what is needed? PIE to the rescue again. It's all right there.

Individuals can also enjoy PIE. The framework the slices are the solid guides for thinking, talking, planning, dividing, and sharing. It’s your whole PIE - eat the entire thing if you wish or slice it up into manageable bites.  You could invite some trusted friends and share your PIE among them.

Those slices are there and they are yours: for thinking, deciding, researching, planning. For strategy, determining priority, or delegating. PIE is there for as an overlay, and a guide for and individual’s tracking.

Finishing of a pie piece is satisfying for everybody. Those of you who know me, know how I like to emphasize collecting Wins – polishing off a good piece of PIE brings true satisfaction. Security, and peace of mind. 

It's simple, really. So simple that I used for years as a thought process for capturing information and for tracking my personal and professional work -that I nearly missed it.

It turned out to be one of those hidden in plain sight advantages. For me and for many > PIE imagery with its categories as slices come to mind so easily and are so easily manipulated.

I didn't have to change the thing. I didn't have to learn a new process. I simply utilize The PIE Model™ as a framework, starting with a good capture and moving on to other important stuff, like troubleshooting, researching, planning, prioritizing, and the very important conversation(s). Oh, and yes, celebrating Wins.

The PIE Model™ is the whole package. 

A bit of good news for you: I am not licensing it. PIE was made to share. If you use it in teaching and such, I hope you will attribute The PIE Model™ to me. 

My main goal has been to create and share a tool, a concept, a way of thinking that WORKS. I want to make things easier, and not leave anything out. Mostly, I want to share PIE with you and with many.

So go ahead. Take a bite. Download a Free Taste of PIE in the form of a free download called the Peace of Mind Checklist. (I had to hold back on the play of words available there, it could’ve been the “Piece” of Mind Checklist, P-I-E-C-E). 

Consider your Peace of Mind Checklist as a sampler, because soon I will be adding more goodies baked up for you, whether you are a professional or an individual. >

 I’ve got professional Guides are coming out of the oven shortly.  New recipes are in my test kitchen, and I will be creating guides for Individuals, and my special guests Solo Agers will be on the guest list. The there can be PIE-making Kits, so much goodness is on the way! 

I invite you to have PIE with me, you will find details on my updated website. Join My Community if you’ve not already.  Along with the regular Tips, Tools, and Strategies for aging I will  keep you in touch with the aging issues of the day and poke, er, provoke your thoughts.

As always, share your thoughts with me (and lots of you do, thank you) and place your orders for what we can discuss – over PIE.

Nancy Ruffner is a patient advocate who provides strategy for aging, solo aging, and healthcare navigation. Nancy consults with clients in a triage fashion, offering one-hour consultations toward a deeper understanding of “how stuff works” in eldercare, or find your path. Schedule your 1-Hour session now, without obligation of commitment or continuing costs. nancyruffner.com.