Atmospheric Hydroxyl Radicals (AHRs)

NASA and the University of Leeds were researching atmospheric chemistry in the 1970’s. There were some chemical balances that were not making sense. Until they discovered the AHR.

Naturally occurring AHRs are produced when the ultraviolet (UV) energy from the Sun causes one of the hydrogen atoms from ambient water molecules (H2O) to break away. The Sun’s energy overcomes the bond dislocation energy of the water molecule. This results in an elemental hydrogen (H) and an oxygen-hydrogen (OH) molecule with a negative charge (•OH).

The negatively charged OH molecule is the atmospheric hydroxyl radical. During sunny days the air outside can have between 500,000 and 2,600,000 AHRs per cubic centimeter. When the Sun sets the concentration of AHRs drops to zero.

AHRs are highly reactive. They tend to only exist for a very short time before they react with some other element. If you view a table of oxidation-reduction chemicals, AHRs are second in oxidizing potential; fluorine is the highest oxidizing agent. Humans, animals and plants all evolved in the natural AHR environment and are not harmed by contact or inhalation of AHRs.

AHRs do not penetrate liquids or solids. Having a negative charge, they are non-corrosive to metals, including stainless steel (which is subject to rouging). Unlike ozone, chlorine and caustic type sanitizing agents, AHRs do no damage to cloth or elastomers.

The oxidation-reduction targets of AHRs in the environment include organic chemical bond dislocation (hydrogen sulfide, methane, etc.) and destruction of virus, bacteria and mold.

In the 1990’s NASA deployed a titanium dioxide based hydroxyl generator on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. Devices based on the titanium dioxide technology produced very weak hydroxyls that were only effective in a very small space. In the early 2000’s an inventor formed a company to produce photolysis-based AHR generation equipment.

What Demographics Tell Us

The demographics portion of the survey allows you to see things like how much training people on your leadership team have received and what levels of motivation those people have. A 2015 survey across multiple organizations clearly showed that above average motivation scores were linked with leadership training that occurred more often then every two to three years. Within the demographics section the survey can be customized to enable a leader to be linked with their direct reports. This provides a means for individual leaders to understand where they have disconnects with their direct reports. It also allows senior leaders to develop an improvement plan for leaders that have direct reports with low motivation scores.

Team Effectiveness

The team effectiveness portion of the survey asks the leader and their direct reports for their responses to twenty questions. There are five team effectiveness areas that the questions relate to. The differences between the leaders responses and the team member responses provide insight into disconnects between what the leader believes, and what their direct reports believe. Knowing there the differences are allows the leader to focus on those areas where they need to resolve the differences.

Motivation

Leaders should know what motivates their direct reports. In the motivation section of the survey there are three sets of statements that provide insight into how people feel about their job. These statements allow leaders to better understand the things that are motivating and demotivating to their direct reports. Knowing what motivates an individual enables the leader to better focus their coaching and development.

Ordering a Team Effectiveness & Motivation Survey

If you’re interested in a survey contact us. We’ll discuss how many leaders and how many direct reports are to be surveyed. There is some administrative work to be done up front depending on if you want leaders linked with direct reports, or if you only want team effectiveness or only motivation surveys. The output that will be provided includes the actual survey data that was submitted and a summary report and recommendations for the leaders.

Many people ask about the cost. Generally, for each leader and set of direct reports, up to twenty persons total, the cost is $600. For larger sets of survey respondents there can be discounts to the standard cost. Customers can ask for an in-person briefing by Tom Moriarty, author of The Productive Leadership System; Maximizing Organizational Reliability. Alidade MER also offers two-day productive leadership workshops and half-day overview of productive leadership workshops that train leaders on proper leadership techniques.