How Napoleon’s surgeon saved us all

If Napoleon had won you might have been reading this in French. Instead his defeat left Western culture largely in Anglo-Saxon hands. Yet there’s one French concept that outlived Napoleon, that the entire world still uses to decide life and death. It’s triage, and it’s an idea we owe to one of Napoleon’s most trusted commanders: Baron Dominique Jean Larrey.

 

The Baron

Larrey was the chief physician of Napoleon’s armies for 18 years. He had a genius for organization and a knack for taking military tactics and putting them to medical use. For instance, he saw how Napoleon’s horse-powered “flying artillery” units sped up their fighting maneuvers and created “flying ambulances” to speed evacuation of the wounded.

Prior to this the wounded weren’t treated until fighting had stopped, a delay which killed. But Larrey’s horse-drawn wagons could work while battle raged, allowing soldiers to be treated in the field. His innovation was boundless, he even developed a camel-drawn ambulance for Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt.

 

But even more important than flying ambulances was Larrey’s new method for what medics should actually do once they reached the wounded. Larrey was the first person to teach medical personnel to sort, or trier.

 

What does triage really mean, any way?

Today it seems like common sense, but when introduced triage was a real game-changer. Wikipedia describes how it worked:

Those responsible for the removal of the wounded from a battlefield or their care afterwards would divide the victims into three categories:

• Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;
• Those who are likely to die, regardless of what care they receive;
• Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome.

The patients in the last category were treated with the highest priority for the highest impact on survival rates.

 

While it’s obviously of value to the battlefield and the emergency room, triage is actually useful in any situation where resources are limited. A common application is the Eisenhower decision matrix, popularized by Stephen Covey and inspired by this quote from the 34th president:

“What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”

If you’re looking for an easy framework for allocating your scarcest resource — time — then this matrix can be a good start. Here’s how to think about it:

• Items in the Important/Urgent quadrant are the immediate “life or death” deciders. They should be done right now, and personally (e.g., crises, deadlines, problems)
• Those in the Important/Not Urgent quadrant may also be life or death deciders, but play out over a longer period. They should be systematized and done personally,  (e.g,. relationships, planning, recreation)
• Those in the Unimportant/Urgent quadrants are delegated or automated. While they may need to be done, but doing them yourself is likely a poor use of time (e.g., meetings, repetitive and time-consuming activities)
• Unimportant/Not Urgent quadrants may be dropped entirely (e.g., time wasters, interruptions)

 

Lots of folks have trouble with Quadrant 3 — tasks that ought to be done but not necessarily by you. We love this advice from Tracie Rollins, courtesy of Ramon Ray:

 

This is also why we built Emphatic, a way for entrepreneurs to have excellent social media for their businesses without needing to do it themselves.

 

What other business tasks do you wish you could automate or outsource? Let us know in the comments!