Motivating Your People

When asked the question, “what do motivational events look like in 2008 and should companies be investing in such a function?” it left my brain whirling with endless possibilities.  The words ‘motivational event’ lends itself to so many different types of event, from motivational speakers to hands-on training courses, and team building functions to adventure sports days (for the more adventurous amongst us).  I am a big advocate of accelerated learning techniques, and offering people the opportunity to learn in an environment that is both fun and educational, allowing the brain to absorb information in a unique way.

I am always surprised that so many organisations still opt for classroom training. Particularly for customer-facing individuals that represent the brand daily.  It was this need for more interactive and value-based learning that gave Bridge the impetus to put into place the Living Brand® series.  Without getting too heavily into the science of it, motivation can be defined as whatever causes the brain to act. As such, motivation reflects states in which a person is prepared to act physically and mentally in a focussed manner, that is, in states characterised by raised levels of stimulation.  Accordingly, motivation is intimately related to emotion as emotions are the brain's way of evaluating whether things should be acted upon; approached if pleasant or avoided if unpleasant.

There is also fairly good neuroscientific evidence suggesting that curiosity can be considered as an intrinsic motivational drive. Accordingly, novelty in the learning environment is probably an important element in motivation as novelty awakens curiosity. Interestingly, detection of novelty is associated with the methods in which we teach our people as it is an important structure in memory encoding and memory consolidation. If the purpose of training and developing our people is to have the information retained and utilised once back in the workplace then the methods and styles in which the information is transmitted is key.  Hence, it is important to understand what drives your people’s behaviours.  Once this information is obtained it can help guide the appropriate learning interactions and ensure you are focusing on the right things with each and every person on your team.  Learning should be fun and stimulating and done in a manner that ensures people feel invested in as opposed to dictated to. This is where understanding what style of motivational event will assist your organisation and drive employee motivation and their will to perform once back in the workplace is imperative.

Although children are taught from a very early age to sit still and listen, things that they ought to learn are not really put in a practical context.  In this sense, cognitive neuroscience could be used to focus on the way people learn.  As people get older the information we retain needs to be delivered in a more implied and practical manner.  Some say that it is much easier to learn something that can be used practically, however if the method in which it is given is not stimulating then the majority of retention is lost in the first stage of short-term memory.  Information enters the brain through one of our active senses – sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Often as this information enters through one of these avenues the memory system links itself to an associated memory.  In its most basic form this is why you have a favourite colour, and a certain smell reminds you of a happy or sad time, and why a piece of music will bring a flood of memories to the surface.

With a well planned and people-oriented motivational event the brain will do the work on your behalf.  It will attach the learning to the motivational value of the event. If the event was fun and stimulating then the law of averages states that the individual will have a higher retention of this information.  If the event pushed the boundaries and challenged the delegate in a positive manner then it too will develop a powerful connection. We have recently seen a growth in organisations linking their motivational events to green and environmental initiatives. This is a great way to stimulate higher levels of commitment in your people.  However, this connection must be in line with the organisations own brand value and individuals should never be forced to participate.  As with all motivational events they have many plus points – yet – if it leaves the delegate feeling uncomfortable or out of their depth then a negative link may be associated with it.

I recently attended a team building session in a five star restaurant where the entire team was responsible for working together to create an amazing seven course meal all under the direction of the head chef.  This fostered a great team building opportunity; healthy competition between team members and a fantastic reward at the end where the team could enjoy their meal as a group.  As part of the Living Brand® series we work with delegates to bring alive their organisations through various means such as creating a visual display of what the brand values of the organisation means to them.  This has been extremely successful as it transforms marketing words into living brand actions.

As training and development budgets get even tighter in the current climate it is crucial that organisations look to their people and ask them how they best learn.  It is this invaluable information that will enable the training and development team to put in place a learning environment that best reflects your people. It is imperative that we take on board the many different learning styles available for our people.  At Bridge we are committed to moving people from employee status to Living Brand® champions.  And in order for us to do this we must first look to the people that we will be engaging with.  Too often motivational events are seen just as a jolly; an opportunity to get offsite and have some fun.  This does not have to be the case as a well planned event should also reflect your brand values, foster better team spirit and encourage a renewed commitment to the organisation.  The event should be linked back to additional learning and be reinforced with higher levels of memory stimulation.