Einstein had an amazing ability to explain very complicated concepts and principles in very simple terms. In fact I've often thought that the ability to reduce complexities to fundamentals is key to higher thinking. An example of Einstein's reductivist abilities, and his sense of humor, he once gave this definition of Relativity:
“When a man sits with a petty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute, then it will seem like more than an hour. This is relativity.”

Have you ever noticed that you can tell that a scientist is famous when they can be referred to just by their last name, when a female model is famous she can be referred to by her first name (e.g. Elle), and a famous pop singer can be referred to by a just a symbol

But pondering Einstein’s explanation more deeply, we see that the sources of motivation as well as being diverse, can also be opposites -- the attraction of sitting with a pretty girl, or the impetus to avoid the hot stove -- these forces are opposite in nature, but both motivate us to act. The concept of opposite compelling forces can be seen everywhere, from simple stories such as Aesop’s fables (the sun and the wind), countless works of literature, and of course the various bibles and holy books (usually involving good and evil).

To an employer of people, Intuitively the concept of motivation seems simple, “give them more money and they will work harder/better/smarter -- or any way you want them to”.

But what if you had lots of money, would an increase in pay still motivate you? Well if money doesn't motivate you, would you be motivated by "intangibles" such as more status or more recognition?

So people seem to be motivated by rewards of varying types, but yet we have all heard of people such as "starving artists", charity workers, religious people and so on who work ceaselessly yet shun these things, in fact some even give up everything to follow their charitable work.

How then can we explain someone who gives up their life for someone else, perhaps someone they don't even know? And what about the motivation of fear, and so on? So perhaps you are beginning to see that motivation is a very complex issue?

Let’s have a look at a dictionary definition.

Motivation (MS Encarta dictionary):
1. Giving of reason to act: the act of giving somebody a reason or incentive to do something
2. Enthusiasm: a feeling of enthusiasm, interest, or commitment that makes somebody want to do something, or something that causes such a feeling
3. Reason: a reason for doing something or behaving in a particular way
4. Psychology forces determining behavior: the biological, emotional, cognitive, or social forces that activate and direct behavior

Meaning #4 is useful as it allows for motivation to NOT do something, or to stop doing something that you have started (a negative “action” if you like).

In project management, when we talk about motivation we are chiefly concerned with the forces that we can use to enable certain goals to be met, within parameters.
Goals are met (or not) by people -- i.e. by your team members and other stakeholders -- so an understanding of the theories of motivation and how they apply to people can assist you in your project.

Communication can take up to 90% of a project manager's time during a project, so this is one area that you really need to proficient. Experts tell us that children need to be treated differently from each other; the classic example is were identical twins respond differently to the same treatment by the same parents (but “good twin / evil twin” scenarios only really exist in dubious novels where the author can’t come up with a plausible plot). Each child / team-member / stakeholder has a separate personality and needs separate, individual treatment to perform at their peak.

Of course there are certain limited generalities that we can apply, including culture, religion, gender, organization and so on -- but use these with caution. How do you do this? You can ask people how they like to be treated but, surprisingly, many people don’t really know how they need to be treated (and for many of those that do, not all of that stuff is legal, and “she/he was asking for it”, is seldom a good legal defense). So that’s where your abilities as a super Project Manager come into play.

In simple terms we are trying to get people to do something that we want, by giving them something that they want in exchange (or by withholding something that they don’t want).

There are basically three types of motivation

1. CARROT. This comes from the practice of dangling a carrot on a string in front of a donkey, the donkey moves forward, and so does the carrot, so the donkey moves more, and so on. This little trick works for a while, but eventually the donkey realizes that it’s not going to reach the carrot and so it stops. So you’ve got to let the donkey have some carrot occasionally -- but if you let it have too much carrot, then the donkey stops being hungry and stops working. Of course you could use juicer, tastier carrots -- but that’s just a temporary fix. I’m sure you can see the analogy with people and money etc.

2. STICK. OK the donkey’s full of carrots, but you still need it to pull the cart -- so you can beat it with a stick every time it stops. This will works for a while, but now you’ve got a donkey that hates it’s work and hates you), and eventually it will get used to the beating and not work any harder.

3. INTERNAL. This is the one that works the best -- when someone “just wants to” do the work, you don’t need to do much at all, they just do the work. Of course sometime people need a little help to “just want to”. But whatever, #3 is the holy grail of teambuilding.

Another important concept is “stimulus”, this is what causes a response -- you know when the doctor hits your knee with a little rubber hammer and your leg gives a big jerk? So stimulus in the field of reward is what encourages all the big jerks to do some work fro you (author's note: I did NOT say to hit them with a hammer).

Show me the money

As we have seen, people have needs, and that "need" might even by to provide for others, and if we meet some of those needs (provide a stimulus), then those people are more likely to meet some of our needs, in return (a response).

To read more articles in this series, please visit PromotePM.org



Jim Owens PMP is a career Project Manager, presenter and PMP instructor. Jim is director of Certification with PMI Western Australia Chapter, Columnist with www.PMHub.net and Information Age Magazine. Visit Jim’s website http://www.PromotePM.org Domains & Hosting from http://www.WebsWoven.com