7 Responses

1. SMART and solutions
   What are your learning objectives?

   I see content but no clear/SMART learning objectives – “wanting people to go away feeling motivated”

   1. How are you going to measure their feelings?
   2. How long do you want them to last?
   3. What level of feeling do you want?

   You asked about structure ; I’d recommend you conduct a TNA first, this will enable you to identify causes of low motivation, if you identify this then you may find that the subject matter of the training changes – staff may be demotivated due to insufficient product information, poor management techniques, low expectation culture etc etc. Without a TNA you run the risk of putting the cart before the horse.

   Be careful your programme doesnt become an identification exercise.
   As Maslow (and numerous other theories dictate), motivation is comprised of many variables, theories and exercises in themselves wont undo underlying causal issues that may be deeper. Are you in danger of helping people learn about motivation, identifying their individual causes of demotivation but not addressing solutions which could lie anywhere home/office/social/medical etc etc? Just a thought.

2. 1 day programme on motivation
   What signs are there of demotivation? Will the group be able to describe the roots of this. Ask them how they would prefer things to be at work. Encourage the group to be creative in designing their ideal workplace, atmosphere, colleagues etc. Also ask the group to list all the things which they would like to happen less or not at all. Ask them about the choices they have made which have led them to where they are now. Find out who is responsible for the way they are feeling. Ask the group to list their heroes and people they admire what qualities do they demonstrate. Build in some laughter. Encourage honesty. Arm yourself with some stats are outputs down are sick levels up what has changed. Set concluding objectives for the way things are going to be. What are they going to do differently.
   work with an experienced tutor first.

3. Web Sites
   MOTIVATION THEORY

   http://www.maps.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/mindmap/

   http://www.mindmapper.com/whats-mindmapping.htm

   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~caveman/Creative/Mindmap/index.html
   http://members.ozemail.com.au/~caveman/Creative/Mindmap/mindmapfaq.html

   http://www.peterussell.com/Mindmaps/HowTo.html

   http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm
   A synopsis of Maslow’s classic theory.

   http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/FIS/Courses/LIS1230/LIS1230sharma/motive1.htm
   All the key theories are listed here, but with little explanation.

   http://www.uta.fi/~kk16628/motiva.html
   Not a huge site, but with some interesting information.

   http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/index.html
   A fairly detailed overview of motivation, to navigate it click the links on the left of the page.

   http://www.slu.edu/departments/management/650/650proc/
   A PowerPoint presentation on the theory of Motivation- excellent.

   http://www.bothell.washington.edu/faculty/wfreytag/MGI09/index.htm
   Another web site with PowerPoint which can be downloaded. This one focuses on equity theory.

   http://eies.njit.edu/~turoff/coursenotes/CIS679/vg2679/sld158.htm
   Yet another PowerPoint presentation, this time on Herzberg.

   http://www.iavalley.cc.ia.us/~gebaker/personal2/management/mgtch13/sld001.htm
   And yes! Another PowerPoint file, this most theories are touched upon at a general level,

   http://projectalevel.co.uk/business/motivationtheory.htm
   An ‘A’ Level assistance site which looks at the theories of motivation – very basic.

   http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/deathANDmotivationTHEORY.htm
   A unique review of motivational theory, an interesting site.

   http://www.iavalley.cc.ia.us/~gebaker/personal2/mgthome.htm
   An absolutely stonking web site with masses of PowerPoint files all relating to management but with a section on motivation.

   http://www.ee.uwa.edu.au/~ccroft/em333/lecl.html
   A web looking at motivation in organisation, quite general.

4. NLP and Physical Techniques
   There are plenty of interesting books on NLP techniques out there with associated exercies and also look at the way Physical state can affect motivation – Anthony Robbins self improvement/management texts are full of ideas for these.

   Physical exercises are fun and it’s very difficult to finish a day demotivated when there’s been a lot of jumping up and down etc. !

5. I’m involved in putting a supervisory development programme toge
   One very simple exercise we’re doing is to ask each person what is most important to them in their role eg security, financial reward, recognition, development opportunities etc. You should get a range of answers and this illustrates the point that different people are motivated by different things.
   Good luck.
   Debbie

6. Motivation = Money??
   Worth taking care not to get the ‘wrong’ answer by asking ‘What motivates you?’ (usual answer from disaffected = ‘Money!!’)- try exploring what excites/angers them, what ‘get’s them up on a wet Monday to go to work’, ‘what gets them to go the extra mile etc – if all else fails on the day have a competitive game/exercise up your sleeve

   Iain Thomson

7. Motivation
   I thought Mark Starling’s reply was excellent. I would go one stage further back and conduct (or better still, get those requesting the training to)a Business Needs Analysis. You cannot teach people to be motivated if the frame work in the company is wrong. It is a classic mistake ot assume that training is the answer. It may be but there are often other factors which need to be addressed first.