Another SXSW has come to an end and although I did not attend I have enjoyed reading articles from those that did attend. The event has turned into something of a phenomenon in the techie world even though it was originally touted as a music festival in Austin, TX. Good music apparently attracted some great thinkers, innovators, and all around fun geeks.
I was checking out the Annual Web Awards winners and came across the coolest video not surprisingly created by an ad agency, Boone Oakley.
What motivates an ad agency to create a video that ultimately is there website on You Tube? To get noticed of course! But beyond that it tells their story and somehow creates an interactive website using video. It takes a plain website idea to the next level. How cool is that! If you click on the other areas of the video you really start to have a feel for who BooneOakley is and for me it was great to experience their humor.
Sit back and enjoy. If you need a shift in perspective, motivation to create something new, or just need a good laugh this is the right place to be, have fun!
The Olympic closing ceremonies were held this past Sunday with all of the fanfare of Mardi Gras. It was a celebration of the games, the athletes, the triumphs, and the disappointments. It was also goodbye, to us the viewers who have cheered, cried, and shared in the athletes stories from around the world during the last few weeks.
I enjoyed hearing the back stories of the athletes which made their journey to becoming an Olympic athlete more tangible and compelling. For many of the athletes, the Olympics were a dream born out of a seed of an idea and sprinkled with desire when they were very young. As a young and hopeful dreamer they could not possibly understand or know the road that lay ahead of them. The long hours of training, the injuries, moving away from home to train, and the doubt that always laid doormat in the back of their minds just waiting to sneak out and attack their dream. As I have written in a previous blog article, the motivation of an Olympic athlete is something to behold. The internal drives that push them to be the best in the world at their sport can inspire even the most cynic of individuals.
I heard on the radio yesterday that people across the globe are sadden by the ending of the Olympics as the athletes were a ray of inspiration in a very dark world. I would agree, even though I do not understand many of the Olympic games, (curling?), I appreciated what they represented and offered to the world. The closing speeches were a call to the young all over the world to aspire to their dreams, to not give up hope. I would add that the call should go out to adults as well whose motivational drives are in survival mode not thriving mode. The seed of your dreams still remain; they just might need a little dusting off.
Susan
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A new television show premiered after the big Super Bowl game last Sunday, Undercover Boss. The reality show follows a senior executive who steps down temporarily from their position and becomes a rank and file employee for 7 days. They literally go undercover changing their appearance so as not to be recognized and become a member of the front line. The purpose is for the senior executive to get a real sense of what happens on the front lines of their organization by trying out various front line job positions.
The episode last Sunday featured Larry O’Donnell, President and Chief Operating Officer of Waste Management.
His motivation for wanting to go undercover was to find out the following:
·How did the policies that were made at corporate affect the actual employees who had to implement them in the field
·Were the safety procedures being implemented in the field and adhered to on a day to day basis
·Were the goals and targets that he set realistic
It was fascinating to watch a senior executive tackle various front line job responsibilities like picking up paper, sorting through recycling items, or cleaning out port-o-potties. He had to learn the basics of the job very quickly and pretend at the same time that he knew nothing about the organization.It appears that he learned a lot during his time in the field. He was able to interact with the employees of Waste Management on a different level and it seemed like he had a renewed sense of pride for his organization. He found out that some of the policies and procedures that he had implemented were not affective in the field. A humbling experience in and of itself to see how something that sounded like a good idea can in fact have a negative ripple effect with employees.
How many times does that happen in an organization? An idea seems great at corporate but when it actually gets into the field it falls short of expectations and takes the organization 2 steps backwards instead of 5 steps forwards. A senior executive has many demands and expectations placed on them especially during hard economic times. The people factor is usually the first company value to be ignored as the organization goes into survival mode. This is understandable but it would be wise to remember that the employees in an organization will remember how they are treated in the tough times as well as the good times. So why not break the mold and work together as an organization to come up with solutions that are both cost effective, generate revenue, and recognize employees for their skills and talents. There is a reason why they were hired into the organization, utilize their expertise and their knowledge and you may be surprised at the outcome.
I believe that Mr. O’Donnell has a new appreciation for his employees and Waste Management will probably be a better organization because of his willingness to go undercover and listen.
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
Harvard Business Review discusses a study that looked at what really drives employee motivation. While the study is really looking at emotions and what satisfies employees and makes them happy (and not really “motivation” per se), it does reveal some interesting findings. The most important is that employees having a sense of progress is a key driver in this aspect.
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Of course this ties right into two of the four drives: Acquire & Achieve and Challenge & Comprehend. As employees, we need to feel like we are Achieving something – i.e., making progress. When we feel we are stuck or not moving forward, we are not satisfying our drive to Achieve. We also are motivated to be challenged – but we need to see progress in this arena in order to stay motivated by it.
While the study shed light on how progress motivates, it did not dig in deep to how this works. For instance the HBR study did not explore what type of progress was greater motivator — progress on everyday simple tasks or those tasks that are challenging. I would theorize that progress on the challenging goals has a higher impact. Nor did it look at the effect of proximity to the end goal. In other words, is it more motivating to achieve progress towards a goal at the very beginning or closer to the end (e.g., example of getting the first 1,000 miles towards your frequent flyer free trip or getting the 24,000 mile (when you need 25,000 to earn the free trip))?
Overall the HBR article brought up some key insights that will help us all in understanding what motivates us. Read the HBR article here
If you are looking for a little fun today read on as it may just help you get unstuck and moving forward!
Think back to a time, and it may even be right now, that you were in a slump, no desire to do a whole lot and not quite sure what will get you going again. It is times like these where looking at the situation from a different perspective can help you get unstuck and moving forward even if it is just baby steps of progress.
The Four Drive Model is our perspective shifter today and yes that is a very technical term. When you are stuck, which of the four drives below is the one that can pull you out of the muck and get you going again? (This is a self assessment and by no means scientific but it will help shift your perspective and harness one of the drives to pull you out of the muck.)
Are you driven by the ability to Acquire & Achieve?
You are jazzed by setting and reaching your goals, receiving recognition for a job well done, and/or receiving an incentive for completing and reaching a goal.
Are you driven by the ability to Bond & Belong?
You enjoy and are energized by other people, collaborating on a project, feeding off the thoughts and ideas of others help you in completing your tasks.
Are you driven by the ability to Comprehend & Challenge?
You thrive off of a challenge and learning something new and if it is in service of the greater good even better!
Are you driven by the ability to Define & Defend?
You protect your beliefs and your work and enjoy a healthy debate that helps define your work in a new manner.
Have you chosen the drive that will help you get unstuck? If not, go back and read through the descriptions again and go with your gut, which one makes you smile and internally say, “Yes that is it!”
The ability to see a situation from a different perspective combined with a motivating drive can be the start of getting you out of the muck.
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
I had a question poised to me in a group that I’m in regarding which is more effective/important, recognition or incentives? It got me to thinking about how we tend to try to simplify things into easily digestible answers (i.e., make the world black and white). It isn’t so simple. In reality, a truly effective motivational program needs to include both. It also needs to include a focus on intrinsic motivators (i.e., the three other aspects of the 4-Drive model: Bonding & Belonging, Challenge & Comprehend, and Define & Defend). When we look at motivation holistically, we have a number of levers that we are able to pull as leaders. The fact of the matter is, there is no one silver bullet. Everyone has a plethora of motivators that drive them everyday.
That being said, it is important to understand what those key motivators are. Asking people is obviously a key component of that, but I’ve found that often what people ask for, isn’t really what motivates them the most. It is important to get beyond the surface to the underlying motivators that people have. For instance, research that I’ve been part of shows that the majority of sales people will ask for cash if given the choice for an incentive reward (roughly 74% of the time), yet, we typically see a larger increase in sales performance for non-cash awards (on average about 15 – 25% better). Because of human nature, we don’t always know what really motivates us or we have been conditioned to respond in a particular manner to these types of questions. The difficulty is being able to identify what those real motivators are.
My belief is that incentive programs have to get more individualistic. That companies need to provide managers with more tools to be able to determine real motivators and set up individual programs for their teams. Of course, this is easier stated than done. The first step however is asking them. The second step is identifying peoples underlying drives. The third aspect is to ask them again after assessing their motivational profile, using probing questions to get at peoples real motivation.
Would love to hear people’s thoughts on this topic. What have you seen in your own business on recognition or incentives? How do you optimize them?
I recently came across a new television show called, “The Buried Life.” The premise is reminiscent of the bucket list concept where the question that is asked is, “What do you want to do before you die?” The four gentlemen that created the concept and the show came up with a list of 100 things that they wanted to do before they died. They have been traveling across North America since 2006 trying to complete their list. The other part of their mission is to not only cross items off of their list but to help others cross items off of their list by asking them the same question, “What do you want to do before you die?”
Awhile back I wrote an article on death as a motivator and the four guys from, “The Buried Life,” are taking action on living life vs. waiting to die. The video below is a snapshot of what is at the heart of their motivation to squeeze the littlest moments out of life, to help a stranger, to listen to other peoples’ stories, and to have a lot of fun in the process. They embody the Four Drive Model in action, the Drive to Acquire & Achieve, the Drive to Bond & Belong, the Drive to Comprehend & Challenge, and the Drive to Define & Defend.
Here is how their mission breakdowns in Four Drive Model style:
The Drive to Acquire & Achieve: They have a list of 100 items that they want to complete in addition to helping others achieve their dreams. In the process they will need to acquire certain items to complete their list maybe it is a big purple bus utilized as their transportation from city to city or money to help purchase a computer for a 5th grade class.
The Drive to Bond & Belong: The foundation of, “The Buried Life,” is to bond and belong to something bigger, helping one another out along the way. To listen to the stories and dreams of strangers, to participate actively in life, and to inspire others to make their dreams come true.
The Drive to Comprehend & Challenge: This is no doubt a challenge to cross off the list of 100 random items. In the process they learn and grow because they are pushing their comfort zones and trying to figure out how to accomplish the next item on the list or how to raise money when they are themselves broke.
The Drive to Define & Defend: They are defining who they are and what items they want to do before they die and in the process they have taken a stand on how they want to spend their time each day. They are forming a tribe of like minded individuals across North America who are inspired to help them and would defend this idea to anyone who threatens its existence.
Motivating behavior can be found everywhere; in this case it resides in the dreams of four guys traveling across North America in a purple bus.
So, “What do you want to do before you die?”
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
If you need a little pick me up today, Jack Canfield provides a wonderful reminder in the video below. I enjoy his reverse paranoid aka optimists view of life and turning situations around to see the opportunities vs. the hardships.
It can be a challenge to look at situations and see how in the world they can become opportunities but I am also reminded that through challenges great internal growth can occur. I am a firm believer in constantly learning and growing. I have had my own shares of ups and downs but with each down I come up over the challenge with a new found knowledge, wisdom, and appreciation for the up times.
I recommend taking 1 minute and 17 seconds out of your day to view the video below. Who knows maybe by the end of the video you too will become a reverse paranoid.
Welcome to the club!
Susan
If you know someone that might benefit from this article pay it forward and pass it along.
