3 steps to tangential innovations.

Dr. Eugene Nagel, an anesthesiologist, died recently in Winter Haven FL at the age of 98. You might not know him, but he might have saved your life, or the life of someone you love. In the 1960s, he helped develop the modern emergency medical system (EMS). As a doctor, he came to realize that by the time many patients reached him, it was too late. If they had just had a bit of medical help as soon as the EMS arrived, they might have lived or been healthy. So Dr. Nagel started working with first responder crews to help train them with just enough skills to get the patient to the hospital. For that he is listed among 11 EMS innovators on the website of the National EMS Museum. His innovation was far outside his field of expertise, in the coordination of people having very different skills than his own. It was a tangential innovation. How did he do this?

1. Looking for the magic. Dr. Nagel noticed a pattern, that his EMS patients could have lived if they had help earlier. My friend Jack Matson has always had a knack for “mastering the luck”. When I asked him about it, he said, “Wherever I am, I EXPECT that something great or magical is going to happen, and so then I’m looking for it. And most of the time, I find it when it shows itself!” Dr. Nagel must have been looking for the magic.

2. Taking ownership. Dr. Nagel took it upon himself to find the EMS responders and convince them that early skilled response would be hugely beneficial in saving lives. He could have said, “That’s someone ELSE’s job,” but he didn’t. Innovation is the job of EVERYONE, and anyone in the chain can take ownership, as Dr. Nagel did. No matter if you’re in R&D, marketing, manufacturing, legal, procurement, leadership, or other function, you can spark the innovation that lights up your whole team!

3. Deliver the goods. Dr. Nagel put in the time to help train, staff, and equip the EMS crews. At some point someone has to do the work. He did it, and the payoff was enormous, not just for his Florida hospital, but all over the country and beyond. He didn’t shrink from expanding the impact!

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