Peak Performance and Human Factors Specialists

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STAFF MOTIVATION

Arguably, staff motivation is the biggest and most intractable problem facing all organisations over both the short and the long term. At a fundamental level we break down the problems of an organisation into three categories: the processes, the technology and the people. And if you consider which is the most difficult to fix, it is always the people. There is always a sense in tackling people issues that the toolkit, whilst good and proven, won’t quite be able this time to engage with the inherent unpredictability of people. This is never more so than in the field of motivation. HR specialists know this only too well.

Again, it is this unpredictability of people that accounts for the reluctance of managers and senior managers to engage with the issues. The thing is – financial issues have clear-cut resolutions – look at the P & L account. The sales and marketing issues prove numerically one thing or another. And as for operations, we can accurately gauge their output. The point here is – human beings (and managers are human beings!) tend to like certainty and predictability. What we like we tend to engage in more frequently; what is threatening we tend to avoid. Because human behaviour is not predictable in the same way as finance, sales/marketing, and operations, there is generally a closet avoidance strategy underway. Managers expect people to be motivated because … because  … we pay them, don’t we? Because we have an appraisal system, don’t we? On such dangerous assumptions have many an organisation foundered.

All this has led to another remarkable factor. Uncertainty is reduced by language – what we can talk about we can more effectively control. I mentioned, regarding finance, the P & L account. I could go on with the whole repertoire of financial language – balance sheets, cash flow, ratios, ROE and so on. With this language we can pin down what it is we are talking about. And pinning it down means we can start doing something about it.

Incredibly, when we think of motivation we have to conclude that no such language exists! There are some elementary pointers: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, NLP’s Push and Pull, but not really something that is sophisticated and developed. No wonder then those MDs are very uneasy when talking about motivating their staff. First, it seems nebulous. Or, second, it becomes stereotypical: some big American star comes in, winds everyone up for 4 days, then reality sets in and the motivation is dissipated.

This is the problem that Motivational Maps® set out to address some 5 years ago. They have created the first true language of motivation and a methodology for measuring it. Further, they have developed application-rich tools that enable managers, consultants, coaches and HR specialists to be able to solve real organisational problems. So, what is that solution? But first, how did they arrive at it?

The key insights that led to the final model derived from the Hierarchy of Needs, Career Anchors and the Enneagram! To take just the first of these as it is the most well known, Maslow posited a hierarchy that began with primary needs for basics and security, went to belonging and social needs, esteem, ego and status needs, and finally at the top of the triangle, as it were, were what he called self-actualisation needs.

At root Motivational Maps® unearthed that there were 9 basic motivators in the work place.

THE MOTIVATIONAL PYRAMID

Further, they were linked to the hierarchy of needs but in a different way from how Maslow saw it. The bottom (this is not a value judgement, just how they appear diagrammatically) three motivators were all about security; but security derived for a human being not from what that human did, but from the relationships they had. This, when you think about it, is blindingly obvious. A baby cannot ‘do’ anything to be secure – the baby relies on the parent – the relationship - to be secure. Hence the phenomenon of adults – some at the top level of organisations – endlessly doing things but never able to feel secure. Our primary need – our motivation – is not to think we are secure but to feel it. Without that foundation all else is built on a house of sand.

The second level is the three achievement motivators; these, of course, are in big demand in the workplace, since they directly impact work-type outcomes – motivators like money, power, and expertise. But let us not forget – the Relationship driven motivators impact outcomes as well, though differently and perhaps on another time scale – they provide the glue, the trust that holds things together; and the kind of people who are strong in Relationship driven motivators also effortlessly become the organisational team players.

Finally, at the third level are the three-actualisation motivators. Motivational Maps® sometimes in their presentations and training refer to these as the ‘god’ motivators – these are the motivators where humans are compelled to address the issues of realising their full potential. We call them ‘god’ motivators because the three are – creativity, freedom and meaning – all inherent attributes of god(s).

You will also note that the pyramid also reflects the three modes of understanding that humans have: we feel – the most basic – we think – our human sapiens’ bit – and finally we reach that knowing – we know – the certainty of intuition. We go through all three of these modes all the time, but different people have different preferences. One important application of this, and of the Maps, is in selling – the job of the salesman is get someone to think first about the product, then to move to feel mode – but, the prospect only buys when they ‘know’ the product is right.

So, what then is the solution to motivation that we asked at the beginning? Motivational Maps® - a diagnostic on-line tool that measures motivation – what the top 3 motivators of anybody at work are, and exactly how motivated they are as a percentage. Before going into this in a little more detail, let me present you with the key information you need to know about the nine motivators.

The three green Motivators are Relationship driven, the red are Achievement driven, and the blue are Actualisation driven. Any combination of the nine motivators is possible, and any range of scores is also possible (ranging from 0 –40). The other interesting thing is, the Motivators do change over time – they are more flexible and fluid than a personality profile.

A word perhaps on this last point. If we ask, from whence does motivation itself derive, then Motivational Maps® would say from three core components: one, the personality itself, which alters little over time, although some argue it can seriously shift under pressure. Two, from our expectations, and our expectations are a critical component of our success in life, and are themselves a subset of our beliefs. Our beliefs determine everything that happens to us. Expectations are really beliefs that we have about future outcomes. When we believe that an outcome of a certain activity will be good, we tend to engage in that activity … in the expectation of that good outcome. So, put another way, we become motivated to do it.  But expectations (and beliefs therefore) are malleable – changeable – variable. The person who never changes or examines their beliefs has truly stopped growing altogether.

Third, and finally, our motivations derive from our self-concept – a composite of our ideal self, our self-image and our self-esteem. This is the mirror in which we see and understand ourselves.  This ‘cauldron’ is always interacting with the world and the world with it. Profoundly, this too is changeable – we are in a process of becoming that which we could never have imagined at the outset. To see ourselves as achievers, as high performers, as success stories impacts motivation at the core of our being – as, tragically, does the reverse position.

We have, then, a fluid situation in which motivation is even more ambiguous than we originally thought.  Small wonder that many managers wish to avoid dealing with it. However, it should be clear from what we have said that this need not and should not be the case. For it is also imperative to realise that motivation is like a muscle – use it or lose it. One would not expect a muscle to stay in shape if one did not exercise it; so it is with motivation. The most motivated member of staff will ultimately become demotivated unless attention is paid to the motivational aspects of their work.

Username: K
      Client Name: TSL
      Date of Test: 28/06/2006 12:59:34
      Distributor: D
          
      Motivator Position Score

      The Searcher (S) 1 29        Score 1: 8 /10
      The Defender (R) 2 26       Score 2: 7/10
      The Expert (W) 3 23          Score 3: 5 /10
      The Friend (R) 4 21
      The Spirit (S) 5 19
      The Creator (S) 6 19
      The Star (R) 7 16
      The Director (W) 8 15
      The Builder (W) 9 12

To sustain motivation for K we need to focus on: the Searcher, (meaning), the Defender (security), and the Expert (expertise). In their current role K has scored themselves as 8/10 motivated for meaning, 7/10 for security, and 5/10 motivated for expertise. From this the manager has also received a composite percentage motivational score that weights the relative strength of the three. And we also learn that making money (the Builder) is the least significant motivator – refreshing news for some MDs!

There is also a lot more practical information contained in these numbers – for example, the spread from 0-40, the distribution of W-R-S, and so on. But for now what have we got that is important?

We know the top three motivators of this person. Which means, we should focus on the relevant reward strategies that feed the motivators.  In summary form this might look like this:

Motivational Maps® has a fifty page ‘Reward Strategies’ pack which enlarges on this. But bearing in mind K’s lowest scoring for the three key motivators was for Expert, just looking at Figure 4 we can see that training is the key reward to motivate someone in this area – so, review this at the next appraisal or before. Studying people’s motivators always leads to positive action.

However, the number one motivator of this person is still the Searcher. We recently had a company whose overall dominant motivator – i.e. the collective motivator of the whole company – was the Searcher. We presented our findings to the board of five directors and in the findings were three recommendations addressing their particular ‘Searcher’ issue:

1.  Review communication & feedback mechanisms –
Especially briefings, appraisal & induction 

2. Ask staff to create more stimulating environment  –
Consider: colour, rhythm, and nature, light –
Buy Ioniser/purifier for the office -
Bring in a feng shui specialist!

3.  Review their current workflow -

Is work repetitive or routine? Discuss
Ask for ideas on how to vary work or routines

Finally, create more interest
 In their work by increasing their involvement with clients – and ask for more testimonials!

All of the above directly impact on the Searcher’s sense of motivation.

Now the above jumps ahead of what I have mentioned so far, and this is the beauty of dealing with Motivational Maps® - it is good for dealing and motivating someone on a one-to-one basis, but clearly managers and MDs want more than this. And this is precisely what the Maps provide. Along with individual motivational audits, they provide team motivational audits, and whole organisational audits.

The result of all this rapidly becomes pretty amazing because along with the word motivation one has to add the word  ‘value’. You see, once you start averaging out  (all this is done online) the motivational scores of all the staff in an organisation you find that there is a dominant motivator that effectively acts as the dominant driver or value underpinning the whole company.  This, then, becomes a route to high cost effectiveness – the limited resources become focused on supporting this motivator or in changing it. Ditto for a team. So, Motivational Maps® turn out to be a massive change agent resource. Not an academic one, but one that works at the ‘feeling’ level of people.

I mentioned at the outset that it was application-rich, so what did I mean by that? First, it obviously changes the individual – they want more motivation and are given a picture of what to look for, as well as their current rating.

Second, the Maps can be incorporated into the Appraisal process – we call this Motivational Appraisal. This Appraisal, unlike most, works. It works because the interview is structured in a radically different way – there are three parts to it, but it always must start with reviewing the Motivational Map of the member of staff – in that way, feelings, not thoughts, are engaged. This has a huge impact on the final outcome.

Thirdly, is that old chestnut, which is teambuilding. Here the spreadsheet of the team with their individual motivators flagged up is just irresistible, and as a by-line I must add that this is also where the lowest motivator earns its keep. We find that where a lowest motivator is also some other team members highest motivator there is a 50% chance of conflict – the language of motivation becomes one possible means of resolution. In fact in company training workshops where the staff are exposed to this, often the hostility surfaces and suddenly two opposing members of staff are discussing their different motivators rather than the broken record of the fact that they hate each other.

Fourthly is the area of recruitment. We have found that this is an invaluable adjunct to hiring the right person – certain types of job have certain motivational profiles that characterise the high performers. In fact, we advocate companies benchmarking their high-performers’ Motivators before we use the Maps for recruitment. We find, for example, in the Sales product arena a typical successful Motivational profile is Builder, Spirit, and Expert. We have not used this tool in a call centre yet (only a matter of time), but we ask – what would the profile of your high performers be – and what would that add to the bottom line if that secured massively enhanced staff retention rates?

Finally, and unsurprisingly, this has applications in sales and sales management – clearly, people are motivated to buy, people have hot buttons, and people buy for benefits. The Motivational Maps® have much to say on this.

I hope therefore in this brief overview that you are as excited as I am by the prospect of a language of motivation, and a tool that at long last can demystify this whole subject.  More importantly, can deliver results for organisations that seriously seek effective change management and want a motivated workforce. Motivational Maps ltd is only six months old – this is a lot to have covered so far! I am 1 of only 50Authorised Licensees of the Maps throughout the UK.

If you would like more information on Motivational Maps®, please call or email.

To Contact Paul please email: paul@darcyconsultants.co.uk or call: 07765 882165

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