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Many military bureaucracies wonder how to better motivate their troops and especially potential recruits.
I embedded this video as a subtle hint about the "how to".
Of course, they won't listen.
Bureaucracies, after all.
Think Defence – Site Refresh May 2013
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With all the back-room stuff done, Think Defence is back online and
entering a period of user testing and feedback. I will be adopting a phased
approach ...
5 hours ago
Great movie, it's part of which film?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046963/
ReplyDeleteNice clip, the tragedy of it all.
ReplyDeleteTim
Nice. Would this be related to your previous post on the German mindset?
ReplyDeleteThis clip reminds me of what some people claim they have discovered (I think just rediscovered) about motivation. Especially in the workplace.
"RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us"
http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc
They say motivation shouldn't ideally be about punishment & reward, the carrot and the stick but about 1. Autonomy, 2. Challenge & 3. Purpose.
I would describe it as:
1. Freewill Choice - Life is about choice. You are what you choose to be right or wrong. This is about being.
2. Excellence - to be the best you can be. The environment, people, culture, interactions, work etc. have to challenge you and support you. This is about experiencing, doing and becoming.
3. Purpose - usefulness. The consequences must be good. The highest purpose being to invest the temporal for something eternal. "What you want written on your gravestone" like the clip said.
Thus when people are good, experience good, do good, become the best they can be and achieve the rewards that are good
that is when they are truly motivated!
Benefits & Reward ("carrot & stick") are still very important. It just needs to be seen from a very broad and deep perspective, which is usually lacking.
But there is one motivation left which is usually not mentioned. It is to do something, because you just know it is the Truth. The clip says "something you can feel in your gut". Although cynics would just label this as another form of "benefit". Just another carrot.
But how can you explain this to people who have never experienced it? It is like explaining the taste of an apple to one who has never tasted it.
How are people (like many in bureaucracies) able to listen to you if they haven't experienced something that powerful yet and cannot even understand it? Make them experience it. If not directly, at least indirectly by being around the presence of great people. Although there are no guarantees. But free choice never has a guarantee.
The related science is about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is carrot & stick, its effects fade like a drug and you need ever greater carrots for the same motivation. The existence of regular bonuses is for this reason evidence for an incompetent top management.
ReplyDeleteIntrinsic motivation comes from the inside and is much more powerful. Bad organisations can ruin this one really well by frustrating the personnel. The Bundeswehr is such a bureaucracy.
I fully agree that the Bundeswehr is the most renown German bureaucracy for extreme bureaucracy illnesses. Like all German bureaucracies you best motivate them by regulating coffee consumption (availability and taste).
DeleteYou made a mistake, carrot and stick is extrinsic motivation.
How one drinks coffee in a German office? Do they drink expresso or what?
DeleteGermans "run on coffee" that also serves for the social gatherings during work. If there is no coffee, like during the World Wars, they produce coffee substitutes, but never go without.
DeleteEspresso is Italian and not consumed in quantity, unlike the typical German filter coffee produced with this machine http://www.shop-bursche.de/out/pictures/1/16662produkt_smoby_kaffeemaschine_24080S.jpg.
Compared to Italian coffee mugs, the size of typical of German coffee mugs is quite large (prefering quantity over Italian preference for concentrated beverage).
Another difference from Italian style are the tongue in cheek comments on these compareably large mugs (there are also some even larger beer mugs on this side, the beer mugs with the comments are mostly for tourists). http://www.zazzle.de/german+tassen
A revolution in Germany was introduced by these machines http://vicov-geld.info/internet-tipps/Kaffeeautomat-Padissima/Die-Beste-Kaffeemaschine.jpg capable of producing better tasting coffee in large enough quantity for 1-2 persons on demand within a short time. For these machines there are different grades of coffee pads available (plus this very type can work without pads). Such an automatic coffee maker machine is available in a wide price range and ranks above the old standard filter coffee. Investing into such an utility as a group bonus with a supply of beloved coffee types as constant bonuses is a major external incentive for all types of German work places, perfectly reading their cultural DNA.
Thanks.
DeleteYes, writing twice intrinsic was a tell-tale sign for a typo.
ReplyDeletecarrot + stick = extrinsic motivation
pride, preferences, comradeship, personal standards = intrinsic motivation