I’m a pragmatist.
This means that while theory is nice, what is really important is what happens in real life.
Most of the time when clients hire us, they hire us because we can impact the bottom line through changing the behavior of their employees. Most of them don’t care about the theory behind that change no matter how wonderful it is (e.g., The Four Drive Theory of Employee Motivation) – what they want is results.
Which gets me to the point of this post – if we are really about changing behavior, why do we care about motivation?
Think about it – motivation in and of itself does not change anything. You can be motivated and pumped up and rearing to go and still not accomplish anything. I’ve been motivated for years to loose weight – yet up until a few months ago, I haven’t done anything about it. In their book, “Change Anything” Patterson, Grenny, Maxfield, McMillan and Switzler (the guys from Vital Smart who wrote Crucial Conversations and Influencer) talk about how motivation is just one aspect that is required to achieve personal change. Indeed, they talk about the fact that if all we have is motivation, no matter how much it is, we are most likely headed for failure.
To drive change we also need to have the skills, tools and knowledge necessary to achieve that change. We need to have a social network that supports us in our change efforts and isn’t trying (actively or passively) to derail that change. We also need an environment that helps us and doesn’t hinder us. In other words, motivation by itself is not enough.
Yet…
Motivation is vital to this whole equation. It is the impetus to get us off our butts and start doing something. It is the pressure that is applied to us throughout the change process – the pressure to continue and not quit when it gets tough. It is the internal drive and fortitude to keep going and keep pushing oneself. Without motivation, no change would happen.
And that my friends, is the reason that motivation is important.