Imagen Consulting

Can You Motivate Everyone?

At the basis of motivation is the why of human behavior. The fact that there are so many methods used to encourage people to put forth their best effort, speaks to the complexity of the issue. But can everyone be motivated? The simple answer is no. You can’t successfully motivate everyone. And some might say you can’t motivate anyone. Motivation is an internal process. Much is dependent on an individual’s concept of themselves and their interpretation of the environment or situation they find themselves in.

In Motivate Like a CEO, author Suzanne Bates reminds us that “you can inspire people to discover their own motivation. If you communicate effectively and connect people with purpose, they will feel the spark that motivates them.”

Additionally, she writes, “By consistently communicating purpose with passion, you attract the right people with the right talent, skills, and motivation. The right people come into your orbit; those who aren’t right will move on.”

At the same time, Bates does offer a caution. “Throwing your hands up and acting on the assumption that you cannot motivate everyone can actually damage motivation further. This assumption was “true in boom times, when organizations were bloated and some people you hired were marginal. Those days are over. Now that companies have downsized and are arguably leaner and meaner with the best talent, this is a damaging assumption.”

It is a leader’s responsibility to motivate employees. It’s time to stop blaming employees, and start looking to leaders to ignite the spark in their organizations.

In his recent book Borrowing Brilliance, author David Murray (former Head of Innovation for Intuit) explains how the average organization can successfully borrow ideas to aid in their own innovations. Murray’s six-step Brilliantly Borrowed Brainstorming system effectively lays out the steps, from identifying a good idea to adapting it to one's own uses.

Step One: Defining – Define the problem you’re trying to solve. A creative idea is the solution to a problem. How you define it will determine how you solve it. Mistakes result from solving too narrow or too broad a problem. So, identify as many problems as possible using tools like observation and then sort from high level to low level problems.

Step Two: Borrowing – Borrow ideas from places with a similar problem. These are the construction materials for your solution. Using your problem definition, borrow from places with a similar one, so start with your competitors, then look to another industry, and finally look outside business and to the sciences, arts or entertainment to see how they solve that problem.

Step Three: Combining – Connect and combine these borrowed ideas. Making combinations is the essence of creativity. So, using the borrowed materials from the last step, find an appropriate metaphor to structure your new idea. In other words, use an existing idea to form the framework for a new idea by establishing a metaphor, extending it, and then discarding it when it no longer works.

Step Four: Incubating – Allow the combinations to incubate into a solution. The subconscious mind is better at making combinations. To do this, give the subconscious time to work and quiet conscious thought so you can listen to the subconscious speak. Use tools like: sleeping on it, pausing, putting it away, and listening for misunderstandings. In other words, often the most effective thinking is not thinking at all.

Step Five: Judging – Identify the strength and weakness of the solution. Judgment is the result of viewpoint. Intuition the result of judgment. Use positive and negative judgment to analyze your solution and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the idea. This leads to creative intuition: an idea that has these things (positives) but not those things (negatives).

Step Six: Enhancing – Eliminate the weak points while enhancing the strong ones. Ideas evolve through trial and error adjustments. They self organize. Return to the first five steps to make your adjustments of the idea: re-define; re-borrow; re-combine; re-incubate and re-judge it all. The order you do these things will be different with every idea for the creative process will create itself.

His approach cobbles together two separate worlds: the mysterious, creative world of the artist that generates new forms, and the pre-defined, cost-effective world of repeatable business success. In some places this meld is hard and tight, clearly spelled out. In others, it is generated through inspiration and artistry and thus more curious and serendipitous. Overall, the book provides some excellent contributions to the world of practical innovation.

In his book “The Back of the Napkin,” Dan Roam shows his readers way to quickly look at problems, understand them more intuitively, confidently address them, and more rapidly communicate those ideas and discoveries to others – all using pictures. The thinking is based on years of research by people like Allan Collins, and in a organizational culture addicted to long, wandering meetings, and ineffective PowerPoint, it is a breath of very fresh air. Pick up a copy, and learn ways to make your strategic and problem-solving discussions more efficient, more effective, and lots more fun!

In this economy, everyone’s looking for good marketing advice. Harry Beckwith’s “Selling the Invisible” is a modern classic, full of counter-marketing-culture quips that will provide fuel for thinking outside your own (or your business's) boxes. Make sure you have a pad and pen handy for notes!

Looking for a quick-to-read and incredibly practical tool for strategy and organizational assessment? Then pick up “The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization” by Peter F. Drucker and the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly The Drucker Foundation). This book combines classic Drucker material with applications and thoughts by some of today’s leading organizational and leadership thinkers. A quick and impacting read that you will reference again and again.

Are you’re looking for the game-changing business tactic to woo customers/clients and increase your personal and professional influence? Then pick up “Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends” (Link). The core premise is about doing business for the benefit of others - a startling/contrarian concept in an age of unprecedented corporate greed, manipulation, and backhandedness. This book is a fun and story-filled treatise about the power of love in the workplace. (Yeah, he really says the “l” word). Again and again, Sanders describes situations where giving to others was what ultimately benefitted him the most. A good book about a really great personal AND business value!

Unsure about the value of mission, vision, and principles for your business? Need help developing yours? Then pick up, “The Mission-Driven Organization: From Mission Statement to a Thriving Enterprise, Here’s Your Blueprint for Building an Inspired, Cohesive, Customer-Oriented Team” (Link). This is a great source for developing an organization’s shared vision, mission, and guiding principles, and then applying those statements and principles to drive team work, growth, and day-to-day operations. Should be on every business owner, executive, and pastor’s bookshelf.

I recently finished the book “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” (Link) by Chip Heath, Dan Heath. The book is full of great ideas, stories, and concepts that can be applied to all sorts of relationships and organizations. These communication principles are as applicable in the board room as they are around the dining room table. A must read for executives, leaders, managers, parents, and communicators of all kinds!