How do I motivate them? The Context.
We love a rebel. The bad boy/girl. The one that doesn't play by the rules. They bring excitement and intrigue. They incite a part of us that wants to break free of conformity and ordinariness. Pop culture is littered with rebels held up as heroes like Elvis and Muhammad Ali. There is something strong and courageous about these characters we tend to look up to and wish we could be as 'cool' as them (or is that just me?)
Rebellion (when done constructively) is something I have come to understand as a key leadership trait which I brand under the label of Audacity - ones ability to take bold risks and stand against turgid status quos. Many people (including me) find this to be a difficult activity to perform in our workplaces. I have worked with many clever people such as engineers, doctors, and lawyers (as well as the 'paperless geniuses' like sales people, project managers, and entrepreneurs) who all have their respective difficulties with being bold and zigging when the expectation is to zag. And for good reason. Our modern workplaces rarely reward stepping out of line. It costs time, energy, and effort to question, change, and discover new ways of doing what we do.
Adam Grant wrote about this with great depth in his book Originals (explainer video). In it he writes about the baseball players that steal bases more than others (ie. the cheeky ones). He found a pattern that most of them were younger born siblings. Younger siblings usually can't compete with older, smarter, and stronger siblings in formative years so they learn how to cheat by any means possible to win in whatever way they can. Grant found that when these younger siblings decided to excel in a different pursuit to their older siblings (ie. take up baseball when their older brother pursued basketball), they were able to use their creative wiring to test limits and push boundaries. What makes this more interesting is that Grant goes onto to discuss the difference between high achieving originals and lowly dissenting misfits.
Young people that were 'told off' when they got into trouble tended to be more prone to going on to be law breakers in adult life. However, when young people were told off and explained to as to why they were in trouble, then they tended to grow into productive creative thinkers in whatever field they chose. It is a subtle difference, but makes all the difference. It also makes a world of sense when you consider what we need to learn and understand from any feedback we are given.
The Centre for Creative Leadership is attributed with developing the standard feedback model SBI - for giving feedback to another in the workplace. The reason it is so effective and taught in almost every communication and leadership program is that it hits every mental and emotional need we have for taking on a different perspective, especially when it is corrective:
S - Situation: this tells the person the time and place where an incident happened that the feedback is centred on
B - Behaviour: the action you witnessed the person doing and factual examples of the action in question
I - Impact: the outcome and unintended consequences of the action
Usually, when giving corrective feedback it is encouraged to continue by giving an alternate behaviour the person could use in the future and find an agreement for future settings. It is simple, easy to adapt to any situation/personality, and can also be used for giving people praise. Each element helps the receiver to get a complete picture of the incident and pre-emptively touches on the main areas of content one needs to be aware of. All three points are important, but it is the last one (Impact) that hits home to me and makes the biggest difference. In the case of forming original thinkers this feedback model gives context to the reason the person is being 'told off'.
When we are being given feedback, Susan Scott famously said we can expect one of three responses - Defensiveness, Deflection, or Denial (a.k.a. the 3D's). We basically don't like being told off or having it pointed out we are doing the wrong thing. Whatever the scenario we tend to get emotional and resist the information being given. Our brains question the feedback giver, their credentials, evidence, intentions, and anything else our brain can reach for. Questions race through our mind; what's this really about? what do you mean by that? why are you picking me out (or picking on me)? and why does it matter?
It is the last question I am obsessed with. The importance placed on a behaviour. Even if everything being said it true, it is my experience that our self-protection mechanisms and ego resist unless we know the context of why the thing being discussed matters. By naming the impact we highlight the wider context and higher purpose under which a behaviour impacts. It immediately widens our lens and gives a global view as opposed to our myopic view we initially look through.
I believe there is great power in highlighting and sharing the wider context of any change or directive. It is the core reason why companies use mission statements, vision statements, and core values to drive all employees/stakeholders in a united direction. According to Dan Pink (Drive), one of our keystone intrinsic motivators is a Higher Purpose of the work at hand. Viktor Frankl (Man’s Search For Meaning), a Holocaust survivor, wrote that those with meaning were the ones most likely to survive the atrocity. Simon Sinek talks about the value of a Just Cause to play the Infinite Game of business. The list of thinkers and subject matter experts that agree on this principle of motivation is long and many.
If you want to motivate people, be sure to explain the context, or higher purpose of why they should do what you are asking them to do.
“The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive—our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to make a contribution.”
- Dan Pink
I take this to what can be perceived as an extreme point of view. I feel the higher purpose and even the mission of any given project a team of people are working on should be discussed in almost every meeting. My argument, is that whatever decision we are making should align with the big picture. If it does not, then what-the-hell-are-we-doing!?! At the very least, if we are leading a team or a client, we should be thinking through the prism of context and asking ourselves some key questions:
Why does it matter? So simple yet so often this is missed in our conscious thinking. We wade through thousands of data points a day and are uber-busy with hundreds of to-dos and get exasperated and frustrated with why things haven't been done, should have been done, or need to be done. Notice what happens when we ask ourselves if it really matters, the source of the importance, and the consequence if it is/isn't done. Then communicating through these thoughts drive purposeful discussions.
Why do I care? Be clear on the reason for our passion and drive on whatever it is we are asking to be done. It is weirdly shocking how little we are consciously aware of this in our day-to-day tasks. The answer may surprise you and will certainly shift the perspective and maybe even priorities all together.
Why should they care? Often, because something is important to me I assume everyone else should think it is important. Rarely is this the case. By consciously asking this we can create more impactful communications. it is also a chance to check oneself and think a little deeper about others. It is a practical way of thinking with empathy.
These questions can act as a wonderful filter for our thoughts, intentions, and communications. When used effectively, we can harness originality and drive our people's inner motivations to be a part of something bigger than themselves and their need to understand context. We can hopefully find ourselves doing more meaningful activities with agency rather than mindlessly following policy. We may never see ourselves as being cool and courageous like Elvis or as revolutionary as Ali, but in our own context we can add of it to the world.
