EMB
Creating high performance is
not just about encouraging play,
purpose and potential; companies
must simultaneously minimize
these destructive, indirect
motives to bring out the best in
their people.
simple anagrams (word scrambles) led to an almost 50% drop
in the quantity they completed.
Even more destructive is economic pressure, or when work
is motivated by a desire to gain rewards or avoid punishment.
This type of motivation doesn’t just apply to the workplace. For
instance, in response to rising obesity rates, the government
of Dubai offered citizens a gram of gold for every kilogram of
weight lost. At the end of the contest, about 25% of participants
had shed the kilos.
That might sound impressive, but before cueing the confetti,
consider one of many psychological studies in which weightloss candidates were tracked after their formal programs
ended. Four university researchers found that those who had
participated in the program for the rewards went on to gain
more than they had lost. However, those who had participated
for the learning, coaching and community succeeded at not
only losing more weight on average, but also keeping it off.
Wharton professor and motivation researcher Adam Grant
showed that when we feel like we’re helping others and the
world, we bring our best to the table. Leaders can inspire the
highest levels of purpose by aligning big and small objectives
to their employees’ interests and customers’ values.
The final positive motivator is potential, or when we work
because it brings us closer to our personal goals.
As our reasons for working get farther away from the work
itself, performance starts to suffer.
When people work to mitigate negative emotions like shame,
disappointment and prestige-chasing, they are motivated by
emotional pressure. For a group of University of Chicago
students, merely having their peers watch as they solved
The final and most destructive motive is inertia, when you no
longer know why you work. You come in to work because you
did the day before.
We visited a major electronics retailer as part of our research.
Like its peers, it mirrored many of the same physical
characteristics of Apple Stores, but while they got the wooden
tables and lanyards right, what we heard from its employees
was distinctly different from those at Apple Stores (which led
the industry in our survey).
O ne associate decried the company’s constantly changing
priorities. Contradictory national and local goals were borne
by the frontline, who were expected to balance them lest they
lose their job. They felt expendable; “Frankly I have no idea
why I’m still here,” the associate confessed. Aimless, wasted
effort is an all too common source of inertia.
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