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Issue 9 August 2006
August’s Perform is a little late but here at last! We hope you continue to find it a useful good read. Several of our readers have sent us testimonials and we are delighted that you find it informative, thought provoking and not too long! Enjoy the read and, as always, we would like your feedback on the content. This month’s great leader is American and female.
 Wife of an American president, Eleanor Roosevelt supported her husband by creating a new role for the First Lady, becoming involved in the political arena. She did this partly to help her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, remain in touch with what was happening after he lost the use of his legs after contracting poliomyelitis, but, also, because she wanted to help other people.
She was a great Civil Rights worker, supporting female emancipation, workers’ rights, the rights of black people and the abolishment of child labour. But her qualities as a great leader came to the fore after her husband’s death in April 1945 and the end of the World War II later that year.
Visit our website to read the article by clicking here.
 When we were children, or had children of our own, we experienced the joy of creative play. Great pleasure was had from crayons, or even better pots of paint! We enjoyed the process of experimentation and creation. We had a huge pride in the finished product, even if we had to explain what it was supposed to be!
Those of us fortunate enough to have shared that experience as adults know that it is completely absorbing.
Time and other needs are forgotten while the pleasure of the activity is experienced.
In the same way we become totally absorbed in playing sport, reading a book or playing a computer game.
Sadly as we grow up we learn that work and play are two very different things. Work is not supposed to be enjoyable or you would not get paid to do it!
Work and play stand in sharp contrast to each other.
Dare I say that work is not as bad as this? People do enjoy their work. Some people accept a lower wage to do a job they enjoy. People who only work for money have to be constantly persuaded by pay increases.
The more elements of “play” that can be brought into work the better.
Have you designed your jobs to include elements of play?
Do you stretch your people just enough to please?
Do you change the job design every few process cycles to maintain the stretch?
Do you involve the person doing the job in its re-design?
Creating the right motivational environment leads to huge leaps in performance.
Time to play!
Of course, we all carry our prejudices and stereotypical views around with us. Some of these are from “expert” sources.
 A few years ago a notable German airline gave a booklet on local customs to its passengers to the UK. It was amusing to read that we English eat Fish & Chips from newspaper followed by tea and cake around 4pm. Everyone knows Health & Safety have banned newspaper food wrappers!
No doubt the English have their own, equally weird stereotypes.
Some time ago I went to a famously foul mouthed comic’s show and joined in the laughter at the stereotypical French jokes. These same jokes would have drawn the same audience response three hundred years ago!
Perhaps it is lazy and comforting to have knee-jerk stereotypical responses. It helps to bond us together as a team, as a group as an organisation or nation.
To make an inclusive group you have to exclude others.
Very often, our prejudices are hidden in our stereotypes. This is a block to creativity and blunts progress.
It is always good to hear something that exposes these prejudices to full view. This is often the source of humour itself.
We are indebted to Brian Bolt of the St. Nicholas Hospice for his contribution to ripping aside the blinkers of prejudice.
During a Senior Team Development session he proposed that everyone should be eligible for the Paralympics. My prejudice was to think of the Paralympics as something different and inferior to the Olympics. A visually impaired runner could never be as fast as a full sighted person. But what a liberating idea!
How many Olympian athletes would rank highly if they ran blindfolded or played Rugby in a wheelchair?
For me, the liberating idea was that the Paralympics’ sports are not inferior but different. My prejudice was exposed and destroyed.
We all have our expectations of how the people who work for us will behave. Those expectations flavour our behaviour and, therefore, our communication.
There is nothing easier than living down to someone’s expectation of you. The manager is proven right to be sceptical and therefore very wise.
What expectations do you have of your people and how do you communicate them?
Contact us now for more information on inspiring your people to astonishing performance.
Have we made you stop and think about your own organisation and what could be gained by improving things?
If you are curious about the improvements in performance that are possible, or you would like to know how to solve specific performance problems, then resolve to make a difference this minute.
Call us now on 01787 378851 or email performance@motivationmatters.co.uk to start improving performance.
After all Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”!
We hope you enjoyed this Perform. Please forward it to anyone you feel would enjoy it. Please look at the information on our website for more details and articles. The next Perform will be in a month.
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© Motivation Matters 2006
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