Changing Team

Motivating a Team to Change

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. – Harold Wilson

Previously we have talked about what motivates people and what can we do to motivate somebody else. The discussion had generally been on self motivation or one to one motivation. Today the focus will be how can we motivate our team to change for the better.  The difficulty level climbs exponentially if we have to motivate more than one person as barriers to change are different for different people.

These barriers to change being

a)       Agreement to Change or Improve  (We should  change or Its time to change)

This is the first step in building a critical mass towards change. However, this is one of the most difficult steps as people are very happy in their comfort zones and perspectives. Convincing them to move out of comfort zones or change perspectives is an uphill task.  Pointing at numbers or graphs may not convince people to change because those who are doing good at numbers  feel no need to change, while others take is as criticism and feel that they are not more needed and hence generally start looking to be part of another team.

To make people agree to change, focus should be to bring them out of “behind the desk” and bring them face to face with reality, so that they see what you are seeing.

b)       Availability of means to Change or improve  (We have the resources that will help in change)

Once people agree to change, they will surely find ways to change as they will start leading their brain  http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/pushing-people-to-give-in-their-best.html

But still they would not have fully moved out of their comfort zone and would start question the availability of resources that will help them in changing, the question being will we be successful in this change. These questions either make them trim the ambitions to change or start waiting for the resources to be available to change. Unluckily, we currently live in a “resource constrained world” hence the team leader focus should be in redirecting the resources to areas with biggest possible payoff.

c)       Wanting to Change or improve (I am motivated to change)

5As of Motivation   http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/motivating-others-driving-others.html (1) Appreciation, (2) Authority, (3) Avoiding Pain (internal to self) (4) Affluence and (5) Association. And the 9 tactics around the “5As” that lead to self / others motivation being (1) Recognition, (2) Trust, (3) Challenge, (4) Direction and Communication, (5) Opportunity, (6) Personal Stake, (7) Freedom of Choice, (8) Incentive and (9) Association with a team or group.

We have discussed recognition, and how it is used to tame killer whales http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/rrecognition-can-tame-killer-whale-why.html

Trust as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/people-respond-to-trust-by-upholding-it.html

Challenge as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/life-challenges-help-us-discover.html

Direction and Communication as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/efforts-and-courage-are-not-enough.html

Association as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/camaraderie.html

Motivation via growth opportunity http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/growth-1.html

Motivation via personal stake http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/own-risk.html

d)       Politics (This change are in alignment with my vested interest)

Vested interest always resist change, the more likely the change becomes, the more loud these voices become. The focus is always to protect one self or one self position. Creating alliances is one way out of the political hurdle, another being making people think win-win and lastly you can always make people focus on the objectives of changing / not changing  rather than the position they have taken towards change.  Position is an emotional state and is difficult to break with the objective is more logical and easy to break / convince.

Again, its not simple as ABC. The importance given by different team members to the above barriers changes with time, hence making it difficult to bring about a quick change. This makes it very difficult to have a formula to change. However, a time comes when a lot of people are “For the change” or “Against Change” and this direction/inclination of the critical mass of people decides will the change be successful or unsuccessful.

Your comments will be appreciated, Please feel free to add...... and visit the full blog at http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.  ~Robert C. Gallagher 

Own Risk

Motivation via Personal Stake

Persuasion is often more effective than force.

5As of Motivation   http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/motivating-others-driving-others.html (1) Appreciation, (2) Authority, (3) Avoiding Pain (internal to self) (4) Affluence and (5) Association. And the 9 tactics around the “5As” that lead to self / others motivation being (1) Recognition, (2) Trust, (3) Challenge, (4) Direction and Communication, (5) Opportunity, (6) Personal Stake, (7) Freedom of Choice, (8) Incentive and (9) Association with a team or group.

We have discussed recognition, and how it is used to tame killer whales http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/rrecognition-can-tame-killer-whale-why.html

Trust as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/people-respond-to-trust-by-upholding-it.html

Challenge as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/life-challenges-help-us-discover.html

Direction and Communication as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/efforts-and-courage-are-not-enough.html

Association as a motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/camaraderie.html

And Motivation via growth opportunity http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/growth-1.html



Today lets talk about, how do Pleasure or Consequences drive our motivation. We as humans, run away from pain and try to move towards pleasure. Hence, we by nature, would get motivated to move away from pain towards pleasure, somebody has to make us visualize the pain or pleasure.


As humans, we have two ways to deal with one another. Reason or Force, every human interaction falls into one of those two categories. I personally don’t believe in motivation via threat or force, as this brings a sour flavor in the relationship. Although I know that at times you still have to motivate people via pain avoidance or threat. I believe in motivation via pleasure i.e. let people do, because they want to do it. Lets focus on persuasion and keep force as a last resort. Unluckily, force leads to injustices that leads to most of the ills in the society.


How to we make people do it because they want to do it. Two directions (a) Negotiate or (b) Coach.

Negotiations  works best when people think win / win, focus is on the objective and not on a position or emotions.  Some negotiation tactics being (a) Never become emotional or personal with other party. This makes us forget the objective,  (b)Information is king in any negotiation so don’t underestimate the other party and enter will all the data at hand, (c) Think long term, think win / win and (d) Never give an ultimatum until you really mean it and once you give an ultimatum, be ready to walk out.

Coaching is a process that enables the individual achieve their full potential.  It helps the individual find their “blind spot”, purposefully moving them out of their comfort zone and stretching oneself to new heights.
It is different from teaching or facilitating. In teaching/facilitating the instructor tells what is the right way of doing thing. However, in coaching, the coach only asks the questions to the coachee to help him find the direction themselves. In the end, coaching bears better results, because, people have more ownership to their ideas rather than somebody else’s ideas.


Now the question appears, how to go on about doing coaching.  Lets follow the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options and Will) of coaching http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_89.htm

§         Goal (Establishing a Goal) i.e.

oAgree on the topic of discussion with the coachee

o Agree on specific, measurable, realistic and time bound objectives that the coachee wants to achieve post this engagement.

§       Reality (Examining the current reality) i.e. asking the coachee to describe the current reality, this will help in knowing where they are. Coach should not assume the current situation, neither put words in coachee’s mouth, but should only be listening and asking questions so as the coachee can personally understand the reality. The question one can ask are

o        What is happening now?

o        How often does this happen?

o        How does it impact your life?

o        Is it a logical problem, emotional problem or a feeling issue?

o        What have you tried to overcome this?

o        What has worked?

o        What has not worked?

§         Options (Exploring the Options) i.e. asking the coachee how does he/she moves forward, its time to explore what is possible, meaning all the possible options should be put on the table by the coachee (not the coach). As a coach your responsibility is to help your team member generate as many options as possible via probing on

o        What can we do to change the situation?

o        Are their any alternatives to this, any other alternative?

o        Lets change your perspective, and consider yourself as a third person looking at this situation, what is he seeing, what options will he recommend you?

o        How would your life change, once this problem is overcome?

o        Have you seen anybody else with this issue, what did they do, can you do the same?

o        What constraints are there?

o        How can you weigh different options?

As a coach, one should not suggest options, but ask questions in leading the team member towards different options.

§         Will (Establishing the Will to improve) i.e. Most probable, by now, your coachee will have a good ideas on how to achieve their Goal. This is a major step forward, however, you need to establish a will (as a coach) to ensure that their plans materialize and they are motivated to change / improve / stretch. The questions that you can ask your team to generate that motivation are

o        Which option will take you towards your goal the quickest?

o        So what will you do now and when?

o        What can stop you from moving forward?

o        How will you overcome these obstacles?

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.  ~Pablo Picasso
Your comments will be appreciated, Please feel free to add...... and visit the full blog at http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/  

Growth 2

Motivation via Growth Opportunity

Part 2

If we don’t appreciate our life, and the opportunities it throws at us, then we are doing is only existing and waiting for death.

A few days back we discussed http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/growth-1.html  that, we should not get bothered if people point fingers at us and tell us that “you are no good, stop trying, stop doing things you have not done before”, we should also not blame our losses to somebody else, lets not be cowards. In the end, it is not about how hard you are hit in trying a new thing, its all about keep moving forward and exploring new things and ideas.


Today lets talk about, how do we push people out of their comfort zone?. Unfortunately, we as humans avoid pain and move towards pleasure, moving out of our comfort zone is a painful experience, we are entering the unknown, there is this fear of failure or chance of embarrassment. HOWEVER, if the world would not have been a better place, if people had not marched into the unknown. If we continue to listen to the same music, read same magazines, take same route to office etc, we would not know what we are missing in this world. May be the new type of music suits are ear buds better, maybe the other magazine has a better prospective etc.


Simple steps to push people out of their comfort zone and towards growth.

Step 1:- Explain what’s in it for them. The main reason why people don’t move out of their comfort zone is the fear factor. Fear of unknown, fear of embarrassment, fear of failure. BUT if somebody can make them see how would their life be positivity impacted by marching out of the comfort zone. They will gain some impetus towards the unknown. However, they may still have the fear because of the lack of self belief.

Step 2:- Show confidence / Trust that they will succeed. One time or the other, everybody needs a reassurance to boast back  self belief. “Yes you can”, “I can bet my life on your success” etc are some phrases that one might need to use to smoothen the shaky start, and also to communicate, that you are right besides them and will help them all the way. This confidence boaster is necessary, especially when the person has just moved out of the comfort zone, because at that time the mind is calculating all the negative  “What ifs” and help is needed to lead the brain in positive direction. http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/lead-brain.html

Step 3:- Try to hand over the power/authority over “plan of action” and “plan of implementation”. Every human has more ownership of their OWN plans rather than plans of the others. Chances of success are enhanced if the plans are made and implemented by the same team.

Step 4:- Follow up to maintain the drive. It not a “walk in the park” when somebody heads out of their comfort zone, brain plays all the negative scenarios, and the easiest thing to do is walk back into the comfort zone. The urge to do this is immense. Hence, somebody should follow up to explain what’s in it for them, build confidence, to help in planning / implementation so as to maintain the drive.

Your comments will be appreciated, Please feel free to add...... and visit the full blog at http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/  

Motivating Others = Driving others towards higher achievement.

We excel in life as a group,  individually we are one drop, but together we are an ocean.....


Motivating Others = Driving others towards higher achievement.

Yesterday we discussed the 5A model for motivation (http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/01/motivation-drive-towards-doing.html) today lets talk about the 9 Tactics that can help motivate people around us  and how they fit into the 5A's 

1) Appreciation (recognition, acknowledgement, respect etc)

a.   Recognition–  Acknowledging people on all the good they have done, motivate them to repeat the same.

b.   Trust  - Show faith in people and they will move mountains to maintain your faith in them.

c.   Challenge  - Ask people to do, what no body has done before. Word it right, and watch them reach their zenith

2) Authority (Power, influence, control etc )

a.    Direction and Communication –  As humans we don’t want to move out of our comfort zone, hence a comprehensive direction will make us feel in control and move us forward.

b.   Growth Opportunity – We want to move up the ladder, show us the opportunity to advance and then see how we beat your expectations.

3) Avoiding Pain “internal to self” ( Internal sense of duty, Philanthropy, accountability, freedom of choice, Personal Challenge etc)

a.   Pleasure or Consequences or Personal stake –  Pleasurable rewards move people, I personally don’t believe in  threats, at it brings a sour flavor in the relationship.  Let people do, because they want to do it, rather than they want to avoid pain. As humans, we have two ways to deal with one another: Reason or force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuation. Force should be the last resort in social interaction, as force leads to injustice that leads to most of the ills in society.

b.   Freedom of choice and deadlines – People with high internal accountability, work the best against a deadline that they have set for themselves. Also these people generally work best on their own ideas (freedom of choice)

4) Affluence (Wealth, prosperity, income etc) 

a. Incentives – J

5) Association (Being part of a group etc) 

a. Team – Camaraderie help bring the best out of people.

Please feel free to add any other tactic that i may have missed  

Motivation = Drive towards doing something

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. It does not matter where you have been, what matters is where you are going, what are you becoming.....

Motivation = Drive towards doing something.

Today lets look at the “Whys” behind motivation i.e. “why do we do the things we do?” or “Why we make a certain decision?” or “Why are we driven towards a certain direction?”

To answer the “Why” lets look at what motivates an average human?  I call it the 5A of Motivation

Appreciation (recognition, acknowledgement, respect etc)

Authority or Achievement (Power, influence, control etc )

Avoiding Pain “internal to self” ( Internal sense of duty, Philanthropy, accountability, freedom of choice etc)

Affluence  (Wealth, prosperity, income etc) 

Association (Part of a group etc) 

Depending on the day, mood, historical perspective, we give higher weight to one of the above “A” and make a decision that leads us towards it.

Please feel free to add…..