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Issue 8 July 2006
July’s Perform arrives in the middle of an English heat wave! That is a line I did not expect to ever have to write. Those of you outside of the UK have to change your idea of the English weather always being rainy. We are experiencing the hottest weather since records began nearly one hundred years ago. Take a few minutes to drink a glass of water and read this. Each year, in July, one of the hottest months of the year, the French stage a gruelling competition…. the Tour de France.
Thousands are drawn to watch the cyclists battle with the 3,500km+ route over the most amazing landscapes.
Any of you who have been lucky enough to travel through France will know exactly what I mean.
But what is it that motivates these people to undertake such a task. Lance Armstrong’s prize money of £250,000 plus in 2005 may be a good motivating factor but he voluntarily split it with his team-mates of the United States Discovery Team.
So is it the team spirit? Not necessarily!
 I read about someone who, voluntarily, rode the year’s Tour de France Route. I would acknowledge the author but I can’t find the book or remember his name. This wasn’t team spirit, this was pure bravery! (he did comment on how cruel the French were as every time he rode through a village they reminded him how much it hurt with all their signs saying “pain”).
But in the real “tour”, there are leaders and team players all striving towards the same end. Money, in a small way, is a motivator; after all, we do need to eat. But satisfaction in a job well done and being part of a team is hugely important, as is the adulation!
So in all the ups and downs of working life be a team player as well as a leader.
Every team needs a passionate leader to follow to achieve their goal.
Who wears the yellow jersey in your team?
There has been much discussion recently on the unintended consequences of legislation.
The immediate impact of the Age Discrimination legislation is likely to be a reduction in post normal retirement working until case law establishes how the legislation works in practice.
The effect is not limited to legislation.
I observed a Suggestion scheme implementation that paid good rewards but actually steadily reduced the performance of the unit. Instead of everyone being expected to suggest improvements the scheme classified people according to their grade. You could not expect people to be helpful unless they were paid!
The scheme barred certain types of improvement so the net result was fewer improvements that now cost significant sums.
Another organisation paid a significant bonus to contract staff who satisfactorily completed six months employment. When the bonus was paid the individual was usually offended. The reason being that the bonus was agreed by HR without local management knowledge. Consequently, nobody said, in person, thanks for a good job. The bonus made things worse, reducing satisfaction and motivation!
 Naturally, if this lack of personal contact continues then people will leave. Staff turnover will rise and then someone will notice. What do people do then? They get someone in to do a staff survey!
Most likely all the staff want is their contribution recognised. Rather than do that the organisation emphasises how little they care by getting an outsider to take a survey. It is bad enough if HR do it!
The organisation demonstrates it would rather spend money on outsiders doing a survey instead of the managers taking the time to talk to their people. Will that make people feel more cared about?
Motivation management is simple. Simple like a maze is simple. Unfortunately there are many more wrong choices than right ones.
Make sure you are present in your people’s lives.
One of the difficulties of thinking is that we all tend to drop into the ruts of previous thought patterns. The deeper the rut the more difficult it is to think outside that rut.
To escape the rut it is useful to think in terms of analogies: to take an idea or method and apply it in a different context. It is a powerful tool.
Managing people is not always straightforward. The results can be lost in measurement difficulties sometimes. The uncertainty of outcome, which is normal with people, makes the mathematical tools of probability a relevant analogy.
 An engineering analogue might be the derivation of reliability statistics for complex systems. Human beings are definitely complex systems!
In the most basic and simplistic reliability calculation the reliabilities of each item are multiplied together to achieve an overall figure.
Is that a useful analogue for the performance of human systems?
If zero is unreliable or no performance and one is perfectly reliable or total performance then five perfect people will give a perfect performance.
1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 = 1 Perfection!
If our five people are operating at 95% or 0.95 then 0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95 = 0.77 a 23% loss from perfection If fifty people are operating at 99% then the result is 60%, a 40% loss from perfection! The more people in an organisation the more important is their individual performance. If you make sure your people are motivated, you will be astonished at the improvement in overall performance. Even if you believe your people perform at 99% now, it may not be enough.
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© Motivation Matters 2006
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