Wisdom JournalBy William Seidman
The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) San Francisco conference is April 19th through the 22nd at the Marriott Marquis. We’re presenting on Persuasive Technology Wednesday, April 21st at 10:30 AM. The following day, Thursday April 22nd at 8:30 AM, we’ll be talking about the need for Courageous Leadership in Change.
We went to ISPI last year; it was a great conference and we hope to see you there next month.
By William Seidman
We’re working with a company that wants to change the way it does training.
Instead of the old dull Power Points, they asked us for a highly interactive type of training.
We agreed and designed an interactive approach that does not rely on Power Points.
The managers looked at it and were reluctant to even try it! Turns out they were much more comfortable with Power Point presentations and wanted to use them — staying in the old comfort zone which they agree isn’t effective — if only to show why they didn’t want to use them.
Is this logical?
No, but it’s human nature.
Every level of an organization needs to step out of its comfort zone at times for real change to occur. Leaders can model this. It isn’t easy, but leadership must be willing to try new things — at the risk of some discomfort — for performance to improve. Most of us don’t want to do things we’re not already good at, but it’s just this kind of willing, open experimentation that can lead to effective change.
By William Seidman
I’m working with a group of very competent, smart managers now. I’m coaching them to unlearn certain practices that, frankly, aren’t working anymore.
Our challenge: to change the culture of the company from one that fills orders and generally meets customer expectations — a transactional approach — into one that anticipates future needs and can propose new and creative solutions that please customers and energize managers. (And can still fill those orders!) This new approach can be called transformational.
While the managers I’m working with may talk about making the organization transformational, like so many of us they tend to return to their comfort zone and stick with same-old, same-old business processes that are fundamentally transactional.
They’re constantly surprised when they don’t achieve their objectives.
Do you want your company to merely meet needs — or to be a vitally important resource?
Fortunately, these managers are learning the Cerebyte approach and to think and to function like positive deviants – transformationally. We coach managers to think like their best positive deviants: that’s where the creativity is.
Managers who are empowered to think freshly are happier and more productive. We know that fresh thinking is an art and a craft that can be taught and learned.
By William Seidman
Dan Pink in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us names autonomy, mastery and purpose as key factors in creating intrinsic motivation.
He describes them as equal, but Cerebyte’s experience is that purpose is the foundation for the other two. People are inspired and motivated by a sense of purpose — and it inspires them to put in the extra work that creates mastery.
In turn, purpose-driven mastery creates trust which allows organizations to provide autonomy.
Once in place, these factors are self-reinforcing, but they start with purpose.
Purpose is the positive deviant’s “social good” and is the foundation for motivating others.
Want to read Drive with a group? It’s the New Yorker Online Book Club’s March pick.
By William Seidman
I am enthusiastic about Daniel Pink’s newest book Drive, and have been discussing it a lot lately, but I had some questions for Pink:
Q. Why don’t more companies adopt and support intrinsic motivation? (Pink calls it “Motivation 3.0″)
Q. Most executives know that it is more powerful than the old carrot-and-stick approaches — “Motivation 2.0.” So why not rely on it?
I emailed Pink and got a quick response. His thinking is that “folklore” was a critical factor. People have been brought up on Motivation 2.0 - the carrot and the stick — and told it is the way to drive work. Leaders rely on that.
I think it goes even further. I think Motivation 3.0 - intrinsic motivation, which comes from within — requires executives to trust people to do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do, and executives are not really comfortable trusting others.
A move to 3.0 requires of a leap of faith.
Fortunately, recent advances in neuroscience make the leap smaller because this research shows how our brains respond differently to 2.0 than 3.0.
As Pink notes, intrinsic motivation literally stimulates different portions of the brain that are more closely associated with independent work.
This is the same body of research Cerebyte uses to create and sustain people’s motivation to change.
By William Seidman
I’m excited about Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
Pink thinks “there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.” Intrinsic motivation, according to Pink, is what really motivates people. He calls autonomy, mastery, and purpose THE motivating forces, and the old carrot-and-stick approach “a lazy, dangerous ideology.”
Numerous good studies have shown that people want autonomy at work, and that it’s a better motivator than money.
Drive is consistent with Cerebyte’s approach. We focus on the knowledge of an organization’s positive deviants. Social good is a powerful motivator for these workers. They’re driven from within and by the pleasure of doing things they care about — and that really matter, both to them and to their organization.
