RichardThis post follows my reading Influencer, by Patterson, granny, Maxfield, McMillan & Switzler. to demonstrate how all 6 sources of influence can be applied the writes broke each source into a separate chapter. this chapter covers Personal Motivation, which I summarize below as they are to be to an organization.
The First source of influence is the most basic; personal satisfaction. Are individuals in your organization getting personal satisfaction in the job that that are doing? If not, how can you get them to do jobs or activities that they don’t like?
In this case the objective is to change a personal behavior. If you can’t change a persons behavior you may think that you have to make up for the lack of motivation by using incentives or punishment. A child that does not like doing household chores is either bribed with a weekly allowance or punished by removing a privilege. This same idea is often used with employees. Unfortunately, once the reward or punishment is removed the employee (or child) will revert to their previous behavior. They will change because they will lack the motivation to complete the task at hand.
One characteristic of humans is our ability to understand the unnatural and to train ourselves to do the unnatural. Growing up we learn to avoid fire because a burn is painful and can be deadly. Fireman regularly do the unnatural and walk into burning buildings just to do their job knowing that they are putting their lives at risk.
If one person can learn to walk into a burning building, another can learn to perform tasks that they do not like.
There are two primary ways to change a neutral to negative behavior. 1) create a new experience and 2) create new motivation.
Create New Experiences
An example used in the book involves American soldiers who served in WWII. One third of those studied strongly disliked Chinese food and one liked it. The third that did not like Chinese food had been served Chinese food during the war during times when they were in heavy combat. The third that liked it had been served during times of calm. The third that did not like it did not necessarily dislike the food, but their experiences when they had eaten it. To change their experiences could be as simple as serving a Chinese meal at their child’s wedding or at a ceremony where they are being recognized for something and awarded a prize. Creation of a good memory in relation to Chinese food changes the experience that they associate with it.
Create New Motives
An example used by the authors was the engineering Vice President who had to make a decision concerning the Challenger lift off. The O-Rings that proved faulty had never been tested at a temperature lower than 54 degrees and the expected temperature at lift off was expected to be 26.
This man was asked for proof that the O-Rings would fail, none of which existed. His supervisor told him to “take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat.” He did, and his motives changed. The decision was no longer an engineering question but a management issue - one of many. The launch was approved and the rest, as they say, is history.
This moral disengagement cost the lives of the entire Challenger crew.
In an organization trying to break silo’s and encourage cross-group collaboration remember that moral disengagement always accompanies combative behavior. You will see this when “us” and “them” labels are being used. If your people say that “headquarters makes us do… ” the “them” has to be humanized.
Confront people that are using judgmental description and not delivering on a task by humanizing the person being hurt. Make sure the employee knows why the disliked task is necessary for the organization, If you can’t find why the task is required for the proper functioning of the company, maybe the task isn’t really required.
Find a Motivator
Microsoft found that a supply of free drinks and snacks in each building took away the excuse for people to leave the building for their break. Single common break rooms in each building brought people together who previously had not reason to socialize. Microsoft also offered to handle (not pay for) dry cleaning, shopping and basic car care. This enabled people to work longer hours because the household chores no longer required time spent away from the family or the office.
Answering these basic needs gave access to one of the basic human motivators, the power of commitment.
Experiment with new actions and focus on the sense of accomplishment associated with the results. Find a way to tap into peoples sense of pride and competition, When focusing on activities that are not satisfying, focus on how the activity is vital for the person that needs it, and how it is vital for the organization as a whole. Take the focus off the activity itself.
Talk with people that are highly resistant and find out what they want. Allow them to discover what they find important between their negative behavior and what they feel they need. Finding the answer to this question could be more powerful than any reward or punishment scheme that you can develop.
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