more carefully. Their reports were 29 percent longer when the CT exams included patient photos.
When the radiologists saw a photo of a patient, they felt a stronger connection to the human impact of
their work. A patient photo “makes each CT scan unique,” said one radiologist.
In a recent study, researcher Nicola Bellé found similar patterns in a study of ninety Italian nurses
who were invited to assemble surgical kits. After being randomly assigned to meet health-care
practitioners who would use the kits, nurses were significantly more productive and more accurate.
This effect was particularly pronounced among nurses who had reported strong giver tendencies in a
survey. Interestingly, a week after meeting the health-care practitioners who benefited from the
surgical kits, all of the nurses actually felt more inclined toward giving. Along with reducing burnout
among givers, a firsthand connection to impact can tilt people of all reciprocity styles in the giver
direction. When people know how their work makes a difference, they feel energized to contribute
more.
Building on this idea that seeing impact can reduce the burnout of givers and motivate others to
give, some organizations have designed initiatives to connect employees to the impact of their
products and services. At Wells Fargo, a vice president named Ben Soccorsy created videos of
customers talking about how the company’s low-interest loans helped them reduce and eliminate their
unwanted debt. “In many cases, customers felt like they had a massive weight lifted off their
shoulders: they now had a plan for paying down their debt,” Soccorsy says. When bankers watched
the videos, “it was like a light switch turned on. Bankers realized the impact their work could have—
that this loan can really make a difference in customers’ lives. It was a really compelling motivator.”
At Medtronic, employees across the company—from engineers to salespeople—pay visits to
hospitals to see their medical technologies benefiting patients. “When they’re exhausted,” former
Medtronic CEO Bill George told me, “it’s very important that they get out there and see procedures.
They can see their impact on patients, which reminds them that they’re here to restore people to full
life and health.” Medtronic also holds an annual party for the entire company, more than thirty
thousand employees, at which six patients are invited to share their stories about how the company’s
products have changed their lives. When they see for the first time how much their work can matter,
many employees break down into tears.
Having a greater impact is one of the reasons why, counterintuitive as it might seem, giving more
can actually help givers avoid burnout. But it’s not the whole story. There’s a second reason why
Conrey’s extra giving was energizing, and it has to do with where and to whom she gave. Nearly a
century ago, the psychologist Anitra Karsten invited people to work on repetitive tasks for as long as
they enjoyed them, but to stop when they were tired. For long periods of time, the participants toiled
away at tasks like drawing pictures and reading poems aloud, until they couldn’t handle it any longer.
One man’s task was to write ababab over and over. As the Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer retells
it, “He went on until he was mentally and physically exhausted. His hand felt numb, as though it
couldn’t move to make even one more mark. At that moment the investigator asked him to sign his
name and address for a different purpose. He did so quite easily.”
The same strange thing happened to other participants. One woman said she was so drained that
she couldn’t lift her arm to make another mark. But she then lifted her arm to adjust her hair,
apparently without any difficulty or discomfort. And when participants read poems aloud until their
voices were hoarse, they had no trouble complaining about the task—and when they complained, they
didn’t sound hoarse anymore. According to Langer, they weren’t faking it. Rather, “the change of
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