Tag Archives: motivation

Motivating People to Change

Posted on February 4, 2007 by John Hunter

Don’t miss a nice series of posts by Jon Miller: How to Motivate People to Change – part 1, part 2, part 3. [links broken, so removed 🙁 ] Success may come in the short term when motivation is through a combination of fear and reward centering on financial safety and security, belonging to a group and achievement of status… There is some question as to whether this type of approach to motivation is sustainable, and at the very least … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Psychology, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , ,

Why Extrinsic Motivation Fails

Posted on December 20, 2006 by John Hunter

Why Motivation by Pizza Doesn’t Work This completely changes the role of the manager as motivator. Rather than being the source of motivation (kind of a ludicrous idea in itself), the manager must help employees to find their own intrinsic motivation. Lean thinkers understand this idea as respect for people. Dr. Deming talked about joy in work. Douglas McGregor talked about theory x and theory y thinking. All of these perspectives incorporate an understanding of workplace systems and human psychology. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Eliminate Slogans

Posted on August 13, 2006 by John Hunter

This poster may do a better job, than my posts, of showing why posters and slogan are not an effective management strategy. Text from the poster: “If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.” Despair (link to the motivation poster shown here), offers many such de-motivational posters and note cards – well done satire, in my opinion, but they … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Deming, Management, Popular, Psychology, quote, Respect | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Dangers of Extrinsic Motivation

Posted on August 10, 2006 by John Hunter

The Econ 101 Management Method by Joel Spolsky. Once again Joel presents interesting ideas very well – past posts referencing Joel. But when you offer people money to do things that they wanted to do, anyway, they suffer from something called the Overjustification Effect. “I must be writing bug-free code because I like the money I get for it,” they think, and the extrinsic motivation displaces the intrinsic motivation. Since extrinsic motivation is a much weaker effect, the net result … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Motivation

Posted on July 21, 2006 by John Hunter

From the Deming Electronic Network: Incentives [the broken link was removed]: I don’t think motivation deserves to be discarded to the archives of “Arbitrary Goals.” I have to pose this, though: was Deming explicit on best ways to handle motivation? To me the problem is in the belief of needing to motivate workers (that is theory x thinking). I think it is much more accurate to say managers need to focus on eliminating de-motivation. See page 125 of New Economics … Continue reading →

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Dilbert and Deming

Posted on June 5, 2005 by John Hunter

5 June 2005 Dilbert Strip on motivational posters – [update – well the pointy haired bosses running the site removed the page so we removed the link] New update the phb has been overthrown. Here is the strip: The point of that poster is your spirit should soar like an eagle while you continue to do mundane work Dilbert can show the silliness that is common place in many workplaces, as just that – silly. Point 10 of Deming’s 14 … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Psychology | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments