Our passion is to know that we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are on earth. All other standards of success – wealth, power, position, knowledge, friendships – grow tiny and hollow if we do not satisfy this deeper longing.
~Os Guinness
AMP Motivators – Dan Pink
Daniel Pink (author & speech writer)
What Motivates Us: Not What You Think
We have biological drives; that is part of what it is to be human …
But …
Humans are more complex then that.
A second drive is reward & punishment.
A Third drive: interest, learn, connect, meaning, larger then ourselves
This third drive is often ignored by orgs.
Orgs often attempt to stop the biological drive and emphasize the Rewards & Punishment drive.
If … Then Rewards
Work well for simple tasks
Don’t work well if creativity is needed – causes tunnel vision & to miss stuff.
The Story of Red Gate Software
UK Company
Had a sales force that started gaming the system.
Company makes sales commission structure more complex.
The sales staff adapted to the new set of incentives / game.
Idea:
– eliminate sales commission
– raise base salary
– profit sharing at end of year
“The problem is that that other guy will never go for it because …”
Wrong Assumptions
1. Human beings are machines
2. Human beings are blobs
Machines – can be controlled if the right buttons are pressed.
Blobs – passive, does nothing if not forced by some outside force
Look at kids – or – look at yourself
Motivators
1. Autonomy
2. Mastery
3. Purpose
1. Autonomy
Management is a technology invented in the 1850’s designed to get compliance.
Best results are not due to compliance, but engagement.
Autonomy over:
– time
– team
– task
– technique
Good assumption: people are active and engaged and do good work
20% time or FedEx days
2. Mastery
Making progress is the most motivating element in days.
What if a the role of a Manager is to help people make progress?
Feedback – in order to gage progress one must have feedback
Orgs generally suck at feedback – look at your last performance review.
You need to take ownership of generating factual feedback for yourself.
3. Purpose
When purpose beyond money is lost (leaving only profit motive) bad things happen.
Listen to the pronouns when people describe who they work for.
We = high preforming
They = yeah …
You cannot force “we” on people, you have to change what you do tomorrow. Take small steps in your own world.
Everything great starts with a conversation.
Never Giving Up when Falling – Jim Collins
Jim Collins
“I have always attempted to understand what separated good vs great.”
To have a great society we must have greatness in all parts of the society.
Five Stages of Decline
1. Hubris Born of Success
2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More
3. Denial of Risk and Peril
4. Grasping for Salvation
5. Capitulating to Irrelevance or Death
The org does not visably fall until stage 4.
These stages are largely self inflicted.
1. Hubris Born of Success
Outrageous aroagance.
“When the going gets weird – the weird become CEOs”
Leaders matter, the humility of the leader + the burning passion is what makes the difference.
2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Getting stuck will kill you, but this does not happen to the mighty.
Keep this question in mind:
Do we have all the key seats filled by the right people?
3. Denial of Risk and Peril
A culture of denial forms.
From the outside it all looks great.
Stockdale Paradox – confront the brutal facts & never give up hope.
Discipline facts + faith
4. Grasping for Salvation
Looking for silver bullet – change everything.
Find that right outside leader.
You have to improve consistently over time.
An org can come back from here.
Money is never enough of a reason for an organization to survive.
10 things to do
1. Good to Great Diagnostics – free at JimCollins.com
Confront the Brutal Facts
2. Count your Blessings – literally – in a spreadsheet
3. Question to Statement Ratio – ask more & better questions
4. Answer the Q: How many key seats are on your bus? How many are filled by great people?
5. How the Mighty Fall diagnostic as a group
6. Create inventory of the Brutal Facts
7. Stop Doing list
8. Define results & milestones
9. Double your reach to young people by changing what you do – not who you are or what you stand for.
10. Have a BHAG
Change tactics – not your core purpose.
if money were not an object
One common method for helping people discover their hedgehog concept/blue flame/purpose/mission in life is to ask the individual “If money were not an object, what would you do with your time?”
Other times speakers, authors, career and business coaches mention the “big why”: why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you pursuing your current path? And generally they stipulate that it is not, and cannot be, just because of money. Nobody (well, more or less) really wants little green pieces of paper, they want something else.
In the book Go Put Your Strengths to Work, there is an exercise where for a week whenever you get strong positive emotions from a situation or gained strength form an event, you write down on a card what was going on, and for strong negative or draining events – you do the same. At the end of a week you separate the cards and basically go through looking for patterns: what specific “who, what, when, where, and/or why” caused you to gain or loose strength? This exercise should help you:
- gain better understanding of yourself and what makes you tick, and
- provide guidance as to what you should do more of and less of.
This exercise is more difficult with an organization. It is not just one person, but the goals should be the same: gain a deeper understanding of what makes the organization tick & what the organization should be doing.
What if the first question when a new idea was brought up to a governing board was not “how much” or “how can we pay for it” but “does this help us achieve our purpose in life?” If that answer is “yes”, then the next questions should be “does it grow the organization in one of our primary resource areas (time, money, or brand)?” followed by, “do we have the strength & resources to make it happen?” Granted, there would be times when the answer to the last question is so obvious that the first two questions would not need a lot of time or energy spent when thinking about the projects. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to begin by asking and focusing on supporting the mission of the organization first and foremost?
I think the challenge I would give to you, future leaders and others, is to go back to whatever your fundamental business building material is. It could be an industry specific focus or not. Go through it again and each time the media asks a question or proposes a direction you should ask, “how should <enter org name here> answer this question?” or “how does this apply to <enter org name here>?”
Odds are many of the questions & plans will apply. If none of the thoughts in the media apply to each organization you are working with then you should probably find a better basis to build your career/personal life around.
If money were not an object, what would <enter org name here> do? Now, we should put all resources required for success behind that, if we possibly can, and do it. Then we should figure out what the “if we could do one more, then what would it be?” and do that.
It applies to you as an individual just as much as it does to every organization you have some level of influence on.
incomplete risk
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
~ William Shedd