Pub. 2 2011 Issue 4

winter 2011 23 Q Our company is not giving people much of a raise this year and we didn’t get one last year. Not only that but some people are redlined and wouldn’t get a raise anyway. How is a supervisor sup- posed to keep employees motivated when money isn’t an option? Signed, Stymied by a stuck staff Motivating without money is a key skill for every supervisor, but remem- ber — Motivation is intrinsic. You can only set up an atmosphere that encour- ages it. The rest is up to the employee. I’ll give you some ideas through this exercise I use for intermediate man- ager training. Each individual is given a Lego box. There is no explanation other than “Your job is to create the model to look just like the picture on the box. You have four minutes.” The facilita- tor sits silently while they work. After the 4 minutes have passed, the group discusses the reasons why they worked so hard to finish since there is no monetary promise or any other kind of reward. What do they tell me? • They were motivated by goals: They knew what they had to do, by when and what it should look like. Goals don’t have to be excruciating to write; just keep it simple. • They were motivated by the personal challenge: Just the thought that they were being challenged to “prove their stuff” was motivating. • They were motivated by success: Every time someone figured out where one piece went, he was more eager to tackle the next one. • They were motivated by confidence: Obviously, those who had done Legos before were the best. And being confident about their ability to do it was motivating. • They were motivated by expectations: I told one person secretly that I was giving him the hardest model because I knew he could do it. He was the first to finish. • They were motivated by competition: No one wanted to be the last one done, or worse yet, not able to finish. • They were motivated by feeling special: As I passed the boxes out, I whispered to one person “I bet you’ll be really good at this”. She later told the group how good it felt to be singled out. • They were motivated by wanting to please me: Even though I never referred to myself, they wanted to meet my needs. People are motivated by feeling like they are contributing. • They were motivated by believing I was counting on them to deliver: No one wanted to let me down. • One was motivated by the “sheer pleasure” of getting to use Legos: People are more motivated when doing something they enjoy. Because I designed the exercise for maximum learning, there are certain things the facilitator intentionally doesn’t do. Here are the usual respons- es to “What could the facilitator have done better?” Recognition: It was a letdown that I didn’t acknowledge their work at the end. “It was like you didn’t care”. Everyone agreed that the right form of recognition would have created more energy for the next work assignment. Communication: They wanted to know more about the purpose of the project rather than feeling that they were the cogs of a wheel for some unimportant, useless task. Motivating Without Money By Bernie Deem, Owner, DeemHR