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 

Mt. uhud

Musk Cave

Mt. Ohad (Madina-Saudiarabia)

During the battle of Uhud, due to the incident at the Archer's hill, the course of the battle changed. The Prophet (pbuh) himself was wounded.

Some of the followers, escorted the injuried Prophet (pbuh) away from the battlefield and towards the Uhud mountain.

They climbed the mountain to come to a cave where the Prophet (pbuh) rested until the Meccans had finally retreated from the battlefield. Since then, it is said that this cave smells of musk.

I personally visited the cave on 23rd Feb 2011, and it does smell of a special musk.

At the foot of the mountain Uhud there are no traces of the smell. But once you are inside the cave, you feel the wounderful smell.  Attached are some pictures.

Musk Cave in Mt. Uhud - Madina Saudi Arabia

Inside the Musk Cave



 

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

Jabl Noor

Jabl Noor (Noor Mountain)

Cave of Hira

Pictures from of Mount Noor (Jabl Noor) and Cave of Hira.  It was here that the first revelation took place when the Angel Gibrael visited the Prophet Mohammed.

Cave of Hira (almost 2500 feet above the sea level)

Almost inside the cave. Its a small place where hardly 2 to 3 people can fit in

View of Mecca from the top of the cave (Haram is next to the big building)

View from the top (other side)

Monkeys on the way

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

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/  

Growth 1

Motivation via Growth Opportunity

Part 1 (What and Why)

The freedom to move forward to new opportunities and to produce better results motivates humans to live in future rather than past.

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 incentives as motivator http://hunt-for-motivation.blogspot.com/2011/02/incentives.html

Today our focus will be Growth opportunities as a motivator. In this day and age, everybody wants to move up the ladder in career or in society. Hence, an opportunity to advance motivates us to give our 200% if we know that the hard work will pay off. The three well know theories on management (a) Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, (b) ERG theory and (c) Two factor theory have “Growth as motivator” in common amongst themselves.



Maslow




ERG




Two Factor



Generally the management believes that the staff is leaving a job because of money i.e. “pull of better bank account”. However, in-depth discussion during exit interviews, point towards a different reality i.e. the “Push from management” towards personal growth. No wonder, companies with out a formal career development initiative, are left with less talented people because talented people are primarily motivated by need to grow and move on.

What is growth?. A person / child / adult “grows” when pushed out of their comfort zone. We like to listen to a certain kind of music, read a few specific magazines, drive to office a specific way, cook dinner a specific way, meet other in a particular fashion, move around a grocery store in a set way,  like doing some known things etc etc. This is our comfort zone. HOWEVER, to develop ourselves, to learn about the world, to learn about others, to learn about ourselves, we need to go out of the comfort zone. Its going to a restaurant and ordering a different dish than the usual one. In the end you understand that do you enjoy the new thing or not.

A ship in the harbor (comfort zone) is safe but that is not what the ships are for.

 So its not necessary to motivate people by promoting them up the corporate ladder, but they will be motivated if they are pushed outside their comfort zone and made to conquer the unknown. These unknown can be (a) A new assignment, (b) An unfamiliar project, (c) A new department, (d) Reporting to a tougher boss, (f)Responsibility of more people etc etc (any thing that puts a specific person out of the comfort zone). For a child this can be as simple as taking the first step, or learning how to eat without creating a mess, or use of money at a grocery store.

The gist is 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. Unluckily, the world is becoming a nasty place that tries to beat us to the ground and tries to keep you there permanently if we let it.  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.

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

Incentives

Motivation via Incentives

Money is not the most important thing in the world, love is. Unfortunately, people have started loving money.

5As of Motivation  (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.htmllogspot.com/2011/01/efforts-and-courage-are-not-enough.html

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

Today lets discuss Incentives as a motivator. Before we start, let me clarify that I do not recommend using monitory incentives to motivate people, although I do acknowledge  that monetary incentives work wonders in motivating people, but it is only short term.

Incentives = additional remuneration in recognition of goal achievement.

Why do incentives work. In this day and age, Money has become very important, while personal values have lost importance. 25+ years ago, friendships were made on values and common ground, now, friendships are made on business interest. Unluckily,  Money is seen as the tool that will help satisfy social needs, psychological needs, security needs and Esteem needs. In essence, Money is a tool that is applicable throughout the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (below).

Unluckily, Only a few men have the ability to withstand the highest bidder

Why I do not recommend using incentives as a motivator. I acknowledge that in the short term, incentives do wonder, given money is possessing most peoples imagination. However, in the long term, incentives have a negative impact as it becomes term of business. Gist being, that in the short term, incentives improve your bargaining position, however, its not a long term strategy.

 Let me give you a hypothetical example, imagine your team is under delivery pressure of a project. It seems that the project will not be delivered on time. So you tell everybody that ½ salary will be given, if the project is delivered on time. And low and behold, you see your team stretching their limits, working nights even weekends. And the project does get delivered on time. Now imagine, what is your team exited about after the project delivery. MONEY and not that they stretched themselves to deliver the project to deliver on company mission / vision.  After a few weeks you will realize that your people will start hinting on incentives program to deliver i.e. it becomes term of business.  Once we reach this stage, its very hard to get out. Because, now I expect to be paid extra for stretching myself.  Continuing with the hypothetical situation, assume that you give-in to your employees demand and start an incentive program. Now you will realize that you have many disgruntled employees. People outside your department will be dissatisfied because they can not be part of this incentive scheme. While people in your department will be dissatisfied, because they will feel that person X has easy targets vs. them. Hence they will feel that you are not doing justice. In the end, you will be working in a disgruntled company that is not focused towards the vision / mission but towards money. I.e. management should bribe me to do my job.  

Let me give you one real life example. A few years ago, I was working with a company that was under huge volume pressure. To jumpstart the volume, Management decided to incentivize the sales force (for one month) by suggesting incentives based on targets. It worked wonders, almost everybody achieved the target and got the incentives (40 inch Plasma TV), people who did not achieve the targets, got disgruntled and tried to pressurize the management to attain the incentive stating that factors beyond their control impacted their volume. Next month was very interesting, for the first 15 days (50 % time gone), the company only achieved 20% of the volume. Management got worried and called in the sales people. During the meeting I realized, that the sales team is given all the reasons under the sun to justify lack of volume delivery. In the end, the Management asked, “how can we deliver this month” and the united response came as “We can try to deliver (although its very difficult) if we are incentivized with a surround sound system”…….. this continued for the next six months, volume did get delivered but the sales team got their homes redecorated with incentives. Everyone outside the sales team was disgruntled, felling that the management is unjust………..

In Summary, in the short term, incentives do work. However, in the long term, incentives have a negative impact as it becomes term of business and demotivates people.

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