What can Harvard Business School Teach us About AED Units & CPR Training?
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Harvard Business School Professor Teresa Amabile conducted a multi-year study monitoring the day-to-day activities, emotions, and motivation levels of hundreds of workers in a wide-variety of work environments and realized some telling results.
Amabile compared the data obtained from anonymous, internet-based communications from participants, with surveys from more than 600 managers from varying companies and found stark contrasts between the true motivations identified by workers and the perceived motivations identified by Management. Management indicated that the number one motivator, in their opinion, was “recognition for good work.” And, while many agree that recognition is important and can boost morale, the findings of a detailed analysis of more than 12,000 diary entries indicated that “recognition” wasn’t number one. In fact, the motivating factor ranked dead last by Management, “progress,” ranked number one with an overwhelming 76% of respondents reporting higher morale on days filled with progress. Moreover, Amabile noted that even incremental progress grossly outweighed other, frequently cited, motivators like support, collaboration, and the importance of one’s work.
Harvard Business School’s findings should be seen as a blessing for the Automated External Defibrillator (AED units) and CPR/AED training industry as the number one motivator, progress, is under the full control of management and instructors across the country. “Bystander response to witnessed cardiac arrest is abysmal, as low as 17% in some studies. Instructors should use HBS’ findings as an opportunity to modify the style of their courses,” states Micah Bongberg, President of Annuvia, a national company that provides CPR, AED and First Aid training to many businesses. “While ‘encouraging’ course participants is important during a CPR training course, and certainly shouldn’t be discouraged, according to Harvard, instructors can gain more from their participants, perhaps increasing the number of lives saved due to Sudden Cardiac Arrest, by establishing markers and showing incremental progress.” For instance, CPR instructors might consider beginning a course with a mock drill to establish an instructional baseline. “Once participants see the learning opportunity ahead of them, instructors can incrementally show progress and enforce their newly acquired life-saving skill set,” states Bongberg. “According to Harvard, this will greatly increase motivation above and beyond other considerations.”
The same methodology can be applied to a corporate organization implementing a new safety program, such as nationwide first aid training for their employees. Since the “importance of work” rank correlated with only 19% of days in which respondents posted high morale, stressing the “importance” of a new safety program may not be the most effective means of achieving an organizational goal. Rather, management might consider beginning with the importance of the initiative to gain quick adoption and buy-in, then offer solutions and road-maps which will enable their team to reach their goal. Throughout the process, management should measure and track progress, ensure that incremental progress is attainable, known and understood throughout the organization, and stress how, when, and where a team performed against their goals. Doing so will improve morale and, importantly, improve motivation. Who knows? Doing so might even improve the chances of surviving a medical incident at one of their locations.