Motivation

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Motivation
MOTIVATION
The holy grail of management

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Motivation
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Motivation Introduction: The de-motivated or plateau-ed performer is the person who reaches a certain
level of performance, in both meeting standards and producing results, and then goes no
further. In time, without further improvement, staying still results in a decline in
achievement, as others pass them by or standards are raised. When a person can perform
but chooses not to, the problem is likely to lie in motivation.

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Motivation
Plateau-ed Performance
All activity, work and performance
have motivation at their heart. We
take action - move ourselves forward
- in the belief that we will gain in
some way. This view is not shared by
the plateau-ed performer.
The plateau-ed performer is typically
an experienced employee who knows
their present job well, can perform
without too much effort and is
content with the rewards they
already get. They may no longer have
the expectation of promotion or large
pay rises and are likely to convince
themselves that it is better to stick to
a low level of performance than to
work for anything better.
Performance can plateau, or level
out, when it fails to reach the level of
others in the team; it can also plateau
in relation to what the individual is
capable of achieving themselves.

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Motivation
1. CARROT
AND STICK
The "carrot and stick" approach is the oldest and
most basic form of motivation. It relies on force
to get someone to do what you want. The stick is
a "from behind" incentive prodding people on. It
is often the same as a threat: do this or else. The
carrot is an "up-front" incentive offering a
reward or bribe for the same result: do this and
I'll give you something in return.
Carrots are rewards; sticks are punishment
Flickr attribution: /toddle_email_newsletters/17233999165/

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Motivation
ShouldYou Use the Carrot or the Stick?
The most basic form of human motivation is pleasure
and pain. We seek those courses of action that we
believe will result in pleasure and avoid those that we
believe will end in pain.
This simple instinctive theory suggests why many
plateau-ed performers dislike the thought of change.
They believe it will be uncomfortable, require too much
effort and involve painful self-awareness.
The "carrot and stick" is the practical application of the
instinctive theory of pleasure and pain. In these cases,
we are offered the prospect of something pleasurable as
a carrot (money, praise, kind words, a happy workplace,
security...) and the prospect of something painful as a
stick (loss of money, loss of job, bad feelings,
unhappiness, a dismal cv, a poor reference...)

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Motivation
2. MONEY
Money is the most widely-used motivational
device. It is the reason most people go to work.
In its own way, it is the carrot that entices us to
work harder. However, money is not a
straightforward incentive. Its effects often wear
off quickly and have to be replaced with other
kinds of bribe. It is also complex, there being no
universally-agreed correlation between money
and performance. And, of course, if used
repeatedly as a way of motivating people, they'll
keep coming back for more at your expense.
Money can motivate but also de-motivate
Flickr attribution: /franciscodelossantos/4202846880/

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Motivation
Incentives Don'tAlways Improve Performance
In 1945, psychologist Karl Duncker developed an
exercise called "The Candle Problem" in which
students were given a candle, a cardboard box of tacks
and matches and told to work out a way to attach a lit
candle to the wall so that the candle wax doesn't drip
to the floor.
Most students struggle for a solution. Some try to tack
the candle to the wall or melt the candle wax and use
it to stick the candle to the wall. Neither method
works! The solution is to empty the box of tacks and
attach the box to the wall with the tacks. The candle
can then be placed in the box, lit by the matches and
no wax will fall on the floor.
Princeton University researcher, Sam Glucksberg used
the Candle problem to find out whether teams would
perform better with incentives. In the first team, he
Image attribution: Wikipedia
simply said that the aim was to find out how long it would take to complete the task. In the second team, he
offered rewards of $20 to the quickest performer and $5 to the top 25% of performers. The result? The
incentivised students performed 3 minutes slower than the first group.

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Motivation
3.
RECOGNITION
Recognition and its opposite, withdrawal of
recognition, are the psychological equivalents of
the carrot and the stick. You give praise as a
reward for work to the desired standard and you
withdraw praise as a punishment for work that is
not up to the desired standard. Praise and
recognition work because most of us want our
efforts to be recognised and acknowledged.
However, while it costs nothing to give,
recognition only works if it is sincerely expressed
and genuinely felt.
Love your hair!
Flickr attribution: /darpi/855468699/

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Motivation
4. NEEDS
Needs motivation is based on Abraham Maslow's
theory of needs. This theory says we are
motivated to work in order to fulfil a need.
Maslow suggested that needs are met in an
order from basic to high. These are: survival,
security, social contact, recognition, and higher
needs such as developing our potential. In the
past these needs were met by work which is not
always the case today in societies where needs
may be met without having to go to work.
We are driven by un-met needs, such as the need to be safe
Flickr attribution: /pizarraycal/9462812253/

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Motivation
5.
EXPECTATION
OF REWARDS
Some motivational theorists suggest that we are
motivated to work only as far as we believe that
it will lead to some desired reward. The more we
desire the reward, the harder we work. This
theory does not necessarily work where there is
no connection between work and reward as in
many organisations where people have no
control over what they do and what they earn.
You can train dogs – and people - with rewards
Flickr attribution: /garryknight/6828189536/

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Motivation
6. TEAM
CHEMISTRY
Belonging to a social unit is another of Maslow's
needs and can be a strong motivational force.
Most people miss the team when they finish
work far more than they miss the work. However,
team chemistry is complex and not easily
predicted or managed. If it works, it can be a
highly motivating experience. If not, there is
often little you can do but leave the team.
When a team works well, it is a source of joy
Flickr attribution: /mythoto/16037907570/

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Motivation
7. MEANING-
FULNESS
When people see little or no connection
between what they do and why they are doing it,
there is usually a low level of motivation. People
are merely going through the motions. This can
happen when there is distance between the
producers and consumers. Bridging the gap
through information, education and feedback
can turn meaninglessness into meaningfulness.
Wyatt describes how during the Second World
War the output of British armament factories
rose by three times after the factory workers met
and spoke to the air crews who were to use their
products.
In the picture on the right, Women Marines are
learning how to rig parachutes at the training
school at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in 1943.
Everyone works better when they know why
Flickr attribution: /usmcarchives/6049891391/

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Motivation
Aim for the Bullseye
Research shows that goals which are clear,
specific and reachable produce a higher level
of motivation than goals which are vague,
unspecific and out of reach. Desired goals
that are just outside our reach have an almost
magnetic effect on us.
Research by Leavitt and Mueller found that
when a group was given specific goals,
(sometimes called “SMART” goals), 62% of
the targets were met as against only 27%
when the goals were not specified.
Motivational goals need to be more than
specific: they should also be ones that people
feel strongly about, should be worthwhile
and should fit in with other things that the
person wants.

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Motivation
8. PERSONAL
MOTIVATORS
All the previous motivational techniques are
extrinsic factors relying on action or stimulus
from outside. But people also have their own
intrinsic motivators, the things they want to do
for themselves. These are more personal and
relate to people's personality, needs, and
circumstances. However, when you press the
right buttons, there is no greater or longer-
lasting form of motivation.
Each person has their own inner values and standards
Flickr attribution: /alpiniste/5694418518/

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Motivation
The Things I Want
to Do
We each have our own personal motivators. They are the things we
like to do which come easily to us. We often do them for little or no
additional reward.
PERSONAL MOTIVATORS
The chance
to take
charge
The chance
to do new
and exciting
things
The chance
to work at
something
high profile
The chance
to excel at
something
The chance
to serve
others
The chance
to think and
plan
The chance
to be
creative
The chance
to do things
in your own
way
The chance
to work with
others
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Motivation
High Performance Requires Emotional Ownership
Behavioural economist Dan Ariely discovered
in a series of experiments at MIT university
that physical rewards such as money and
targeted incentives do not necessarily lead to
better performance.
When students were given a task that
involved mainly technical skills and little
creativity, a large incentive tended to lead to
better performance.
However, when the task was more complex
and required a level of creativity, the larger
reward was linked to poorer performance.
Instead, the key to better performance was
emotional ownership; in other words,
intrinsic motivators.
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3. Purpose
= the desire to
contribute to
something larger
than yourself
2. Mastery
= the desire to
improve at a
meaningful skill or
technique
1. Autonomy
= the desire to
direct our own
lives
Dan Ariely suggested that there are 3 components of
intrinsic motivation: autonomy; mastery; and purpose.
"What we achieve inwardly
will change outer reality."
(Plutarch)

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Motivation
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Victor Vroom discovered that there was no single form of motivation that could be guaranteed to
work for every person in every situation. The only kind of motivation that works is likely to be a
variable and constantly changing mix of all of these techniques.

Motivation

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