The Three Rules of EMS and How They Apply to Business

Last night I went for drinks with two colleagues who I hold in high esteem. One I work with regularly and know well, the other I’m less close with, but always look forward to catching up with. All in all, it was a great chance to have a nice glass of wine and chat about our goals for 2019, how our holidays went, and whatever else came up. Frankly, I have always believed that you can tell a lot about the people you work with by the local bar they go to, and whether or not the bartender knows their name. In this instance the bar was warm and pleasant, and both bartenders knew my colleagues personally. Truly, I’m working with great people!

As we chatted, one colleague mentioned that I’m the chief of my town’s volunteer ambulance service. As I’d had a little wine, I decided to ask them if they knew the three rules of being a good emergency medical technician (EMT) and how they applied to business?

They didn’t know what I was talking about, so I explained.

On the first day of every EMT class any instructor worth their salt tells all the students the three rules of being an EMT:

1. All bleeding eventually stops.

2. All patients eventually die.

3. If you drop a baby, pick it up!

There is a fourth rule you learn later, which is maybe more of a life rule than an EMT rule. If it is wet and sticky and not yours, don’t touch it. If you must pick it up, wear gloves.

What does this mean and how does it apply to business? Further, why do I think it justifies giving candidates, especially entry level ones, extra consideration in the hiring process when you see they have experience as an EMT or firefighter? I am compelled to put in a plug for hiring volunteer EMTs and firefighters here. Perhaps that is another blog for another day? I’m pretty new to this blogging about my thoughts bit.

Let’s start with rule number 1 – All bleeding eventually stops. It is true, all bleeding will eventually stop. However, it is our job as EMTs to address this as best we can. In business, and especially in consulting, we see problems large and small. It is critical that we address them, and also that we address them in the proper order and the proper way. A good business person understands that you need to sometimes stick a bandaid on the problem and then go back to the root cause to address it. However, if you spend too much time applying bandaids (which don’t stop bleeding), your patient will eventually exsanguinate. A qualified and experienced consultant knows when to bandaid and when to apply a tourniquet to a problem. It is a mix of art and science, and comes with a solid process and experience.

Makes sense? Still with me?

Now for rule number 2. All patients eventually die. This is also all too true. Probably the hardest part of being a new EMT is accepting this reality. Even after 25 years I still feel a deep loss when a patient dies in my care, even if they are old and it was “their time.” This does not mean that all businesses will fail! I have to clarify that point, as it always comes up. The point is, in business in general and the consulting space specifically, there are inevitable and unavoidable matters beyond your ken and control. You can’t let those things which happen no matter what weigh you down or limit you. They exist outside of what we do as EMTs or consultants, and we must work towards the best outcomes for all involved regardless of the negative feelings of the inevitable bad news. A great example in consulting is when we are working with a client on reorganizing a team, with the knowledge that good people will lose their jobs. The reality is we aren’t the ones causing this, we are there to make the process before and after as reasonable and effective for the whole unit as possible. As jobs change, technology, automation, and redundancy impacts on real people become more and more caustic, we have to look to what is the best course of action for our clients, to establish a foundation for future growth and profitability. Orchestration and empathy are critical when dealing with matters you can’t control, be they a compliance process or even death.

This next one is my favorite rule.

Rule number 3 is if you drop a baby, pick it up. Point of information, I’ve never dropped a baby. I’m going to admit I’ve dropped a patient, and once I definitely almost dropped a baby, but that isn’t the point, and I caught him, and he was super sweaty. The point is you will make a mistake. It is true. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Sometimes the mistake is small, like sending an email to a client and calling them by the wrong name, and sometimes the mistake is large, like accidentally sending a German language email to a US list of over 10,000 email address… about the wrong product… this happened. It was a big mistake. Obviously, in management consulting the stakes generally aren’t as high as in EMS day to day, but when working with a life sciences client on how to accelerate their R&D, you are working on things which can make a large and substantial impact on the lives of people. The point remains valid. You make a mistake, you own it, admit to it, never cover it up, document it, fix it. If you drop a baby, pick it up.

I didn’t forget the fourth unofficial rule; the one that comes later.

If it is wet, sticky, and not yours, don’t touch it.

There is a reality in an ambulance that most people suspect but don’t truly get. Patients are kind of gross sometimes. They bleed, they throw up, they pee, they do other things. That doesn’t mean you get to stop doing your job. There is inherent risk in dealing with what OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, deems as potentially infectious materials. It doesn’t mean we don’t treat a patient, it means we mitigate that risk with appropriate personal protective equipment (gloves at a minimum). In business you have to take risks. That doesn’t mean taking risks without any precautions. It means doing the best to mitigate the risk, but still advancing the goal or purpose. Can you imagine a world without risk? Where would be if Henry Ford (or Elon Musk!) hadn’t staked his reputation and future on taking risks and innovating the automobile? What about the Wright brothers? The point is, take risks, but take smart ones, protect yourself and your team as best you can, but do the job that needs doing.

Two final thoughts. First, there is a lot that can be learned about business strategy and planning from the more vocational industries. Second, everything is interconnected, even experiences like consulting and prehospital emergency medicine. As I said, EMTs make great business thinkers. I believe this to my core. Another day I’ll write about how leaders should understand the Incident Command System used in fire service, and how it applies to business.