Surviving in extreme cold

I watched a TED video today of a talk by Ken Kamler. He was a medic on an expedition to Everest where the climbers were caught out by extreme conditions nearing the summit. Several were killed. Last week on our BOHS Module courseM201 "Thermal Environment and Non-ionising Radiation" we discussed the effects of exposure to cold conditions. This video provides some dramatic illustrations.

One of the climbers caught out on the summit survived unexpectedly. An example of where willpower can lead to someone triumphing against extreme adversity. In his talk, Ken Kamler provides a physiological explanation for this.

Drive

I've just finished reading the recently published book, "Drive" by Daniel Pink. I bought it having seen his talk on motivation, delivered at the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford last year online.In it he argues that the old approach to rewarding people using "carrots and sticks" is outdated and doesn't work for jobs that are about innovation and initiative. He advocates a new "intrinsic" approach to motivation to replace the outdated "extrinsic" approach for this type of job. The new model of motivation has threHe elements:

• autonomy - allowing people to direct their own work and organise their workload
• mastery - feeding the urge to do work that is enjoyable and to get better at what you do
• purpose - doing something with a larger objective rather than self-interest

Here's the talk he gave at TEDGlobal

I think that he makes a strong case and can see how it applies to my own work. I can see how it particularly applies to my work as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. I've given up the role this year after working for them for 6 years. The work doesn't pay very well, much less than my "day job", so I clearly wasn't motivated by their "carrot". The pay was welcome, but was not so great. I did it because I enjoyed the work, think that I did a good job, and also was committed to the OU's purpose and ethos. The first two reasons fit into what Pink calls "Mastery" and the third is what he refers to as "Purpose". Within limits (you have deadlines to meet for marking assignments and set dates for tutorials) I could largely choose when I wanted to do the work, fitting it around my other commitments - so I had a large degree of "Autonomy".

I quit this year though. The OU is under severe financial pressures and this has had an impact on ALs. The size of tutor groups have been increased (in some cases this has been achieved by making some ALs redundant) meaning that there are more scripts to mark leading to a heavier workload. So called e-TMAs (assignments delivered electronically) have been made virtually compulsory, but no thought has been given to whether the assignments need to be modified to take account of this. I've found that marking on-screen rather than working with paper scripts is a lot more time-consuming and tiring to mark. This has further increased the workload. This has affected my autonomy and my enjoyment. The OU management style has also changed becoming more aggressive and making more demands on ALs. My feeling of purpose has also been adversely affected.

As my intrinsic motivation has been eroded the old-fashioned extrinsic motivational factors become more important and now the amount they pay comes into the equation and it quite simply isn't enough.

Coping with extreme cold

We’re running the BOHS module M201 “Thermal environment and non-ionising radiation (including lighting)” in a couple of weeks.

One of the topics we’ll be covering is cold stress and control of risks to health from work in cold environments.

An interesting blog I’ve been following is reporting on the Catlin Arctic Survey 2010. This is a British led expedition to the Artic who are investigating how greenhouse gases could affect the marine life of the Arctic Ocean. The team will be experiencing temperatures down to -30^oC (by way of comparison, a domestic freezer is only–18º) and wind speeds of up to 40kph. There is a real risk of condition such as frostbite and hypothermia.

The expedition doctor, Martin Rhodes, or “Doc Martin”, will be posting information on the medical aspects of the trip. A short video interview with him about the hazards to the human body when operating in a polar environment is available on their website here.