3 tips on sustaining motivation

'Meaning', is the force that creates and helps sustain motivation. Whether existential such as providing for your family, psychological such as love, or self-actualizing such as learning to play the piano. Meaning gives us purpose and passion, without which could be very difficult to sustain a high degree of commitment to the things that we prioritize and do.

Starting a 'diet', or an exciting 'new project' could be easy, but maintaining the right mindset, effort, and structured routines consistently, could be challenging. So how do we stay motivated to our commitments?

There are obviously no short and easy answers to this complex topic which could be analyzed from multiple perspectives including neuroscience, social psychology, and organizational behavior just to name a few. In addition, we know that everyone is motivated differently. However, there are a few idea that we can adopt that have shown to help sustain high levels of motivation, over time.

1. Having an internal Locus of control

Social psychology, calls this the degree to which you believe you have control over the outcome. Having an internal locus of control, is the belief that personal effort and hard work, characteristics of "control", will yield the desired results, regardless of external factors, constraints, and curve balls that may arise.

It's the realization and belief that the outcome, is to a high degree, controlled by one's direct efforts. So the harder you work, the better the results will be. This has been shown to be the case in multiple social experiments, including one conducted at Columbia University by Professor Claudia Mueller.

A group of random 5th graders where given very difficult puzzles to solve, and regardless of the outcome, they were all told they did great. They all scored an A+.

Later, half of the group were told that they scored high because they were smart, gifted, or simply born that way. While they other half where told, they scored high due to the fact that they worked hard, and made a significant effort. (Letting them believe that they had control over the outcome.)

Later on in the experiment, both groups were given three sets of new puzzles to solve ranging from easy, medium, to difficult. What happened next was somewhat surprising; The group that was told they were naturally gifted (Little control over the outcome), showed low signs of motivation and satisfaction to solving difficult puzzles, and chose to solve simpler ones. While the group that was told that it was their efforts and hard work that produced high scores, chose to solve harder puzzles (higher levels of motivation), and even reported a personal satisfaction in doing so.

So what can we learn from this experiment? In realistic and applicable cases, where the subject believes that they have control over the outcome as the result of their direct efforts, motivation could be sustained over long periods of time.

Leaders should invest significant time and effort to get to know and appreciate their teams. They should set realistic, attainable, but challenging goals, while continuously trusting, supporting, and believing in them to deliver. Keep in mind, great leaders not only inspire others to become better contributors to the shared goals, but also inspire others to become better versions of themselves.

2. Maintaining a sense of progress

Studies in neuroscience imply that "rewards" enhance our motivation for learning

due to the modulation of hippocampal function by our rewards system in the brain - (Adcock, Thangavel, Whitfield-Gabrielli, Knutson & Gabrieli, 2006).

One of the ways to realize reward, is to realize the progress we make over time. Progress is a reward in its own right, and to realize it, we need performance measures and a tracking system in place, to measure effectiveness and efficiency. Managing progress then becomes a matter of culture (behaviors, habits), routines, and a continues improvement mindset.

A recent study at Harvard university revealed that recognizing and acknowledging progress, is key to sustaining motivation. Reaching and celebrating milestones are rewarding, and can bring the team closer to the desired results.

3. Maintaining the right environment

A third component for sustaining motivation is setting up and maintaining the right environment. These put the responsibility on the subject to take ownership, develop a sense of belonging, and a sense of control.

From the world of criminology and sociology, we know of the 'broken windows' theory, which states that generally speaking, bigger problems could be prevented by taking care of the smaller problems that seemingly appear to not matter as much.

Rudy Jiuliani adopted this policy towards law enforcement, successfully and significantly reducing NY crime rates in the 90's by fixing and solving environmental problems, such as broken windows in neighborhoods, graffiti, petty crime, etc.

The theory has shown that when environments or neighborhoods look clean, feel clean, are neat, well organized and well maintained, potential criminals tend to stay away or think twice before they act.

In the same token, I believe that the quality and personalization of environment, can directly affect motivation and sustainability.

Concepts from the world of lean management and continues improvement such as 5S, have shown how time and again the right, well organized, well maintained, and well tracked environment, can sustain high levels of motivation amongst employees.

5S is a simple 5 step tool or methodology that helps the team identify and remove unnecessary waste, put things in the right order and place, clean up, and standardize procedures to maintain an optimal work environment at all times. When done properly, 5S not only helps the team stay motivated and gives them a sense of control, but also safety, productivity, and quality measures are often improved.

Below is a short video on how a team of nurses implemented the 5S concept at a Toronto’s hospital network, UNH.

You can read more on leadership tools, traits, and what leaders do, in my book available on Amazon - 'Think Like A Leader'. Perhaps discover your leadership potential, or acquire more insight and knowledge to your journey.

#motivation #performance #leadership #results