More thoughts on motivation - Food pyramid and the Bulldog

How many infomercials are we going to see about diet, workouts, food to eat, to not eat….  Our whole lives, nutrition bytes have been thrown at us at school, on the tv, and in the restaurants.  Yet,.. for me, my first thoughts on nutrition began in 7th in the home ec’ class with the food pyramid.

So, as a child I was taught the food pyramid was the way to eat. And, then years later my kids said they learned something better and I was out of date.  Apparently, there are new ideas about how we should be eating which improve old ideas. So, I’ll have to admit I lost faith in the principle as presented to me, and started to rethink my nutrition.

Well, this blip is not about nutrition. Recently, I experienced a moment of motivational shut-down.  Not one of my students shutting down.  Me.  Considering myself a high functioning adult, who likes to run with other over achievers, these are (thankfully) rare experiences.  Many weekends and months passed evaluating what happened.  It was love / hate.  Although I hated the shut-down, I loved trying to figure it out.  And then the food pyramid came to mind.

Now, I am not saying a shut-down experience won’t happen to me again.  I’m sure it will.  But, letting myself have an imaginary conversation with an individual (who I have immense respect for - actually, part of the problem) who was a piece causing the motivational transition in me, it hit me…

So, in my schema, motivation has a progression of levels.  We each operate on various levels, and generally on multiple levels at the same time.  If you have followed my blog, this will make more sense.  

                                

Our goal should be to interact with those around us to help them progress up the chain, from outside rewards to looking to the future, to engaging in a competitive (yet, win-win) spirit, then competing with themself, on to identification and service.  What if the structure is a pyramid?

I’ve often thought how operating at the upper tiers generally brings along everything below, but what if those same things create stability.  I will point out that external rewards are not just pay increases, or freebies at the office (although they would play a role), but also praise, encouragement, friendship and inclusion.  And if done well, an external reward can be tweaked to be coupled to higher motivators.  For example: the free t-shirt at work, is related to an upcoming event, a company event competing with another company to build a house with Habitat, towards a goal of helping to build on 1 more house each year, and become recognized as a member of the community.  With all of these staircasing motivation levels, would those in this experience would have the opportunity of a highly motivating event?  And, even though most people involved would not hit the highest levels of motivation, wouldn't they would be out of the basement level?

2 approaches to motivate - bulldog or builder.

As I’ve stated before, there can be problems with external rewards.  Want to get a kid to stop doing something they already do for fun?  Here’s a technique that often works.  Compensate them to do it.  Regularly.  Then don’t.  Indirectly, we take a kid from a high level motivator to the basement level.  They were the soccer player.  Now, “I thought you were going to give me a dollar torun to the goal and back?  You did it last time.”  What comes next from the child? They vocalize, “I want to go home.”

BTW: How many things would little kids do, if we just let them.  

There are many ways to manage. And, I’m definitely not an expert by any means, but over and micro managing the details can also bring others to the basement.  As a kid, my father had a boat, and we had skis.  Getting up out of the water was generally a challenge, but then it was smooth sailing, or rather… water skiing. 

So, imagine someone getting up the courage to do a jump off a ramp while on water skis.  I’ve never had the courage to try this one, but imagine the time to the ramp.  It would be an eternity.  And then, out of the blue, there’s this other boat making a wake, and what do you have to do?  Focus on the wake.  You have to.  What do you do next?  Make a lap, because you just missed the ramp.  The old bulldog management is a lot like this… not the ramp, but the wake.  We can think of those we report to, who we have a lot of respect for - and would drop everything for,... Well,.. They create wake. You refocus.  You're in the basement.

I’ve often said, if you believe in people, they will often let you down.  We’re all people, and letting others down will happen.  But, if you don’t believe in others,.. it’s a guaranteed failure.  You don’t micromanage someone who you believe in.  We should all think about what we are conveying when we offer critical advice. And, think how motivating encouragement and belief can be to another person. Would we expect more failure and shutdown or less?

We have to also think, how we are getting behind our children, our friends, our students, and our staff to help them grow motivation, supporting them externally, with future vision, instilling healthy competition with self and others, and then supporting a healthy identity with opportunity for serving.  A motivation pyramid.

I believe this support is especially important for the youngest among us: our children.  We have to encourage healthy growth and understanding in our youth.  Something about getting kids engaged by grade 4.  As Bill Nye once said, "Everybody who's a physician, who makes vaccines, who wants to find the cure for cancer.  Everybody who wants to do any medical good for humankind got the passion for that before he or she was ten."(1)  

-John

1Brainyquote.com