Motivation

We’ve all seen the signs in zoos, domains, at car parks in our national parks…and we understand the point, even if we haven’t considered it deeply.

So…let’s consider: why shouldn’t we feed the animals?

We stop them thinking for themselves: they become fat and idle, expecting the food and gorging on it as and when it is delivered. They come to expect it, even knowing when the feeding times begin;
We alter, and harm, their natural abilities:
- they lose their motivation of solving their feeding needs for themselves and of real satisfaction with their successes
- even worse, they now take on new behaviours
They become dependent on us: once reliant on us, if we take the food away there will be a period of confusion and likely pain;
We create un-natural competition in what used to be a structured independent community: we witness the fighting at the artificial food source;
Often, the food we give them isn’t healthy for them and certainly not as healthy as what they get in the wild…we try our best to imitate it but it’s never the same thing;

…we become their keeper, they lose their instinctive capabilities. We no longer witness all the wonderful things that they are capable of. They submit to our control.

I am really using an analogy for contingent rewards: the offering of something on a contingent basis in order to (attempt to) control how someone acts…which makes these rewards extrinsic by definition.

What do we try to do instead?

We attempt to safeguard, or provide (if it has already been destroyed) a natural environment in which the animals can thrive!

So how do we treat people in our organisations? Now, to be very clear, I am not putting you or I ‘above’ anyone by writing this post. I am but one of the animals in an organisational system, just like you or anyone else.

If contingent rewards are being used then the Board determine how to feed the Executives at the top, whilst managers handle the feeding of the process performers at the customer interface.

The point is that contingent rewards will have highly undesirable effects!

It’s worth noting that animals can be successfully introduced back into the wild, to become amazing again! Whether this is successful will depend upon how severe the dependence has become and the effort (both time and expertise) put into undoing this.

The analogy is not perfect but I hope you see the point. Clearly, animals in the wild are dependent on their natural habitat for survival and nature isn’t always kind. Consider that our natural food of choice is to be intrinsically motivated in what we do…and, given the right habitat we can thrive!

I get a number of different reactions from people when I discuss organisational ‘systems thinking’ ideas with them. These range:

from “wow, that’s so right…but we are completely stuck in our current ‘command-and-control’ reality and surely can’t do anything about it!” ;
to “we need change and I can’t wait around for your theory to come to fruition – I’m going to accept things as they are and tinker at the edges as best I can…otherwise I will go mad with frustration!”.

To quote Russell Ackoff: the later response above is basically trying to make a “wrong thing righter” or, in effect, limit the damage.

However, I am very mindful that people can’t feast on ideas alone and that the point is to improve. All the theory in the world won’t help if we can’t apply it.

I have pondered this dilemma a lot and often…and came across (what is to me) a profound answer to this dilemma, as written by Alfie Kohn:

“When something is wrong with the present system, you move on two tracks at once.

You do what you can within the confines of the current structure, trying to minimise its harm.
You also work with others to try to change that structure, conscious that nothing dramatic may happen for a very long time.

If we move exclusively on the latter track, such as by mobilising people to dismantle [the destructive instruments of the] system, we may not be doing enough to protect [our colleagues] from the destructive effects [of these instruments] with which they are going to be controlled in the meantime.

But – and this point can be more difficult to recognise – if we simply reconcile ourselves to the status quo and spend all our time getting our [colleagues] to accommodate themselves to it and play the game, then nothing will change and they will have to do the same with their [colleagues and on and on].

As someone once said, realism corrupts; absolute realism corrupts absolutely.”

So, we need to simultaneously travel along two tracks.

We need to accept that our progress along the (truly) transformational track of changing our management system will take time….but we MUST start and sustain this journey (i.e. not see it as an impossibility) whilst also doing what we can within our current daily realities. We can only do this if you and I continue to think, collaborate and learn….which, I suggest, may be intrinsically motivating for us and give us a clearer sense of purpose.