We’ve all been there.
We have an idea or a project. Sometimes we create the idea or project and sometimes it’s handed to us. Regardless, today I bet you have a task at hand that involves inspiring 100+ staff members to change.
As you know, this is not for the faint of heart. ☺
In Daniel Pink’s book titled, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates US (2009) he describes (among other things) the three elements that are necessary for motivation. I want to summarize them for you, but in relationship to OUR world in the hospital.
This week we’ll start with the first one:
Autonomy
Autonomy here doesn’t mean you never ask for help. Or that you’re so fiercely independent that you never need anyone else’s hands inside the incubator with you.
It means you have the ability and freedom to choose and then act on those choices. (Of course within the realm of what is safe for the patient!)
It means that when given a little space to think and act, you come up with some amazing ideas and stay more engaged in your work. If your NICU or department staff chose 1 new practice (i.e. skin to skin holding or swaddled bathing etc) to initiate and then integrate in 2013 do you think you’d see change? Yes. I believe you would.
What about the projects that are handed to you and your colleagues every year? Are you as motivated to integrate those practices? Yea. I get it.
Now don’t get me wrong. There are many things we’re required to know every year to remain safe, effective and knowledgeable. Yet if we flipped HOW we went about learning or engaging in those requirements, change would happen sooner and would occur at a deeper level.
"For example, researchers at Cornell University studied 320 small businesses, half of which granted workers autonomy, the other half relying on top-town direction. The businesses that offered autonomy grew at four times the rate of the control-oriented firms and had one-third the turnover." 1
This is easy to say and much harder to do in large institution. So for the sake of instant success, let’s just start with ourselves. What’s one area in which you can provide autonomy to your colleagues?
Could you educate them so well about positioning that they become happily autonomous with this practice and you can then provide expert advice when there’s a difficult positioning situation?
What tasks or concepts could nursing teach you as a neonatal therapist that would allow you to become better equipped to make choices on your own or in collaboration?
Start where you live – at the bedside. Open your mind to creating a more autonomous environment. And then keep us posted!
“Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive-and autonomy can be the antidote.” ~ Tom Kelley, General Manager, IDEO
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1Paul P. Baard, Edward L. Deci, and Richard M. Ryan, "Intrinsic Need Satisfaction: A Motivational Basis of Performance and Well-Being in Two Work Settings," Journal of Applied Social Psychology 34 (2004).
