Discontent and Motivation

I was having a discussion with a friend about motivation and how people can easily be discontented. Interestingly enough, I was watching that evening a program on television where the head chef of a famous restaurant, Mugaritz, explaining to the program host, on how she gets her team really motivated. Her team prepares 1,300 dishes per day, based on the menu designed with local produce availability, 14 hour-shift, 6 days a week. They work with military precision, keeping the kitchen spick and span.

You get people to work for three different reasons:
1. You are going to give them a reward.
2. They are scared of you.
3. They are convinced about doing, what you are doing.

That was my point too. If you cannot convince your colleagues on what their job scope is all about, they run around like a headless chicken. Similarly, when you are managing an enterprise, your employees should be informed of the business objective, goals, development plans and executions. Everyone is informed that they play a key role and their contribution is well acknowledged within your operational management.

Of course, many of times, management is quite distorted. Each department, supervisors or even directors have their personal agendas to which, they end up stretching the employees in different directions. This distortion leads to many issues of miscommunication, backstabbing, sabotage and destructive concourse of accomplices within the organization.

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress,
and working together is success.
Henry Ford

As much as you prioritize your well-being, do not forget the well-being of others too. Get people to understand your vision and goals, let them participate effectively as team players, motivate them and see how this will spearhead your effort easily. What seems to fail, is lack of consistency in the motivation effort. It is pointless to call for a management meeting, informing your team of the vision and goals ahead, then consider your job is done. When you decide to check on the progress after one month, I will not be surprised, if you find that little or no progress has been made. The fault is not theirs, but yours.

Think for a moment as the leader of the platoon. You now should be able to visualize, what is needed. No, you are not going to shout around like a Platoon Sargent or become a dictator in your office. As a leader, you motivate them and keep doing so progressively. They need to be convinced of what you intend to do, initiate their shared personal responsibilities and job tasks, to which the resultant can be achieved.

Shared personal responsibilities means that they understand the effort and commitment in the job tasks needed. They are able to derive their personal skills with productive effort and further extend motivation to other team members as well. It becomes like a pyramid hierarchy. The ability to motivate trickles down, top to bottom and vice-versa.

Talent win games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
Michael Jordan

Unfortunately, current education especially at tertiary level are proving much injustice to what the students are to expect in the real world. I have emphasized the teaching method to be changed, revised and modified to market demands instead of staying literally with ideologies that are so back dated, that Henry Ford will be so pleased these students are using Model-T instead of Tesla. If you read between the lines, you will understand, that I am displeased with the current standard of education. Henry Ford was credited with developing the assembly line of production, thus revolutionizing the automotive industry in the process.

Taking these changes, many other automotive industries progressed to such a degree today, that the use of robotics makes manufacturing faster and with better precision. Cars and the applied technologies in design and manufacturing have progressed exponentially. Such progression with time are so visible, but some or rather, the tertiary educational institutions progression with format changes is left questionable. Ask most people who conduct interviews with fresh graduates and see how discontented they are.

Changes are needed. Students pursuing their tertiary education need to understand their purpose of seeking ‘enlightenment’, whilst they find their niche, to harness their overall productiveness. It is pointless just to get high CGPA when in reality, your ability to present yourself in a real work environment, is not as good as your stature.

You must be convinced on what you are learning, on how you can contribute and start working effectively. Most employers prefer to meet potential employees, of whom they can meet midway in their learning curve and work adaptability. This motivates both the employer and employee, as they are able to visualize their prospect of growth within the organization.