What Does Motivate People?

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Permalink Reply by David Mark on August 26, 2009 at 2:18pm

WOW!Bravo! I was going to give a very lazy and thin answer before watching this video. First, thank you for sharing! Dan offers the solution to incentives is not to do more of the wrong things- to entice people with sweeter carrots and threaten with sharper sticks.

Instead, he offers the following will have much greater success (with scientific proof and real examples from corp America):
Intrinsic motivation- the desire to do things because they matter, are interesting because we like it, etc... revolves around 3 things:
Autonomy- Urge to direct our own lives
Mastery- The desire to get better and better at something that matters
Purpose- Yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Dan also shares there's a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. This evidence is very clear in MOST of our businesses. As a former sales rep working for the man or woman, I was often teased with a sweeter carrot (and threatened with a sharper stick!). It never worked and they blamed the sales force for being lazy and underachieving. That was a cop-out, but to their defense, it's all they knew. Some of that could have been true, but even lazy people have their own motivators. Why are we (management, ownership, individuals) doing the same thing over and over? Definition of insanity comes to mind.

Ultimately, we sometimes do what we do even if it doesn't make sense, or isn't clearly the best option. I know, that sounds silly? Why wouldn't we make the obvious best choice? Yes, it's fear, but there's something else at play. It's the Law of Familiarity (not mentioned in the speech). Studies have shown when given the option between choice "A" a Well-known, "inferior" product and choice "B" an unknown, or lesser known "superior" product, we'll invariably go for the familiar choice. Even when the differences are obvious. This is the power and importance of branding. I personally think McDs sucks, but you can't deny they're woven into our subconscious when making a knee-jerk selection.

I'm not sure this is a formula for success, but I'm certainly going to focus on these principles as a foundation for motivating myself and others. My informed opinion is to take these principles and form them into questions for better results. By doing so, you'll be forced to take action, or begin contemplation at the very least (a good first step). Thanks again for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by David Mark on August 27, 2009 at 8:09am

Maybe it's just me, but I'm surprised this topic didn't stay on the front page forum longer. Perhaps, there was a lack of motivation? How ironic! ;)

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