You've probably figured out by now that I really, really enjoyed Adam Grant's book, Give and Take. It's probably one of those books that I will read over and again many times - it's really that good. While researching some of the points he made in his book, I came across a couple of interesting quotes that build upon what I talked about in my last post, The Giving Tree.
An anonymous person said, "Givers need to set limits, because takers rarely do."
The author Mary Anne Radmacher said, "As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way."
Grant's concept again, as I discussed last time, is that the workforce can be divided into givers, takers, and matchers. The givers are the ones who are most successful, but only if they are what Grant calls otherish givers and not self-sacrificing givers. Otherish givers balance serving others with serving themselves. They clearly are more altruistic than either the takers or the matchers, but they avoid the pathological altruism that contributes to burnout and loss of productivity. Here then is one potential strategy to avoid burnout - set limits and balance your own welfare with that of the ones you are trying to help.
Grant frequently talks about a study he conducted at a telephone call center. The call center solicited donations from alumni, and the rate of rejection was very high (approaching 90%). Callers were required to ask for a donation at least three times during a call, and as you can imagine, the simple act of facing constant rejection was burning them out. The rate of turnover at the center was very high, even though the job was one of the highest paying jobs for students on campus.
Grant found that, contrary to his previous research, the givers were dropping out and failing at a much higher rate than the takers! When he visited the center, he noticed a sign on one of the caller's desks (clearly one of the givers):
What was going on here? Grant thought that the givers were burning out because they weren't able to see a connection between what they were doing (soliciting donations from alumni) and who they were helping (the students at the university). The takers were completely fine with working at a job with a high wage. The givers were not motivated by the money - they needed something more.
Grant brought in letters from some of the students who had received scholarship money from the school (which came from alumni donations). When these letters were read aloud at the weekly staff meetings, the givers quickly caught up with the takers. Calls increased, and more importantly, donations increased too. Next, Grant actually brought in some of the scholarship recipients to meet with the callers face-to-face. Shortly thereafter, givers doubled the number of calls per hour and minutes on the phone per week, and average weekly donations increased from $185 to just over $500! Making a connection between the work and the individuals they are trying to help was one of the key factors in avoiding burnout.
The researchers Olga Klimecki and Tania Singer go on to suggest that givers develop signs of burnout (and even compassion fatigue) when they work with people in need and are unable to make a difference, for whatever reason. I suspect that this is a major driver of burnout in health care, particularly when our health care delivery system is measured by things that may not necessarily be in our span of control (I've posted on this subject before, see for example, "You give to get to give" and "Invest your money wisely..."). There is nothing more frustrating, more de-motivating, more stressful than being held accountable for something that is beyond your control. Unfortunately, physicians and nurses are often placed in that exact situation. And it's not just in health care - I suspect that the so-called Great Resignation (also known as the "Big Quit") is in large measure due to employee burnout.
Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership said, "Burnout happens, not because we're trying to solve problems but because we've been trying to solve the same problem over and over and over," which brings me to my final point about the key drivers of burnout in health care. Health care providers are more likely to develop burnout when they feel like they are not making a difference. As just one quick example, I once had a long conversation with a frustrated pediatrician whose patient with chronic lung disease kept getting worse because her parents refused to quit smoking. The child kept getting admitted to the hospital for lung problems that were directly attributable to secondhand smoke exposure.
We have a lot of work to do in health care to address the burnout epidemic. Building on my last post, we can all start by being otherish givers. As leaders, we need to do a better job at "connecting the dots" so that our workers can witness the impact of what they do on a daily basis. Also, we should stop holding individuals accountable for things that are just not under their control. Lastly, we need to find a way to break the repetitive cycle where we force our workers to solve the same problems over and over and over again.
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