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What are You Working On?

28 February, 2014 by James Lawther 5 Comments

pride in the job

What are you working on right now? What is occupying your time? Is it revolutionary? Will it set you head and shoulders above your competition? Is it new, innovative, exciting and exhilarating? Is it brilliant? Does it matter? What are you working on that makes you proud? Something or nothing? If the answer is nothing… Why […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bitching and moaning, motivation, pride in the job

Are You a Fairy Princess?

2 February, 2014 by James Lawther 9 Comments

Fairy Princess

Remember my daughter? She is five, all blonde curly hair, giggles and she thinks she is a fairy princess. This weekend she went to a birthday party.  A five-year-old girl’s birthday party. It was a fancy dress party with a fairy princess theme — this is called knowing your audience. The local church hall was […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: incentives, management style, motivation, performance management

Bonus Time

30 January, 2014 by James Lawther 11 Comments

It is the best part of the year. You have been performance managed and appraised.  Your year-end rating has been cross calibrated / validated / ranked and stacked.  You have emerged from the annual death match unscathed. Your rating has been moderated to allow for business results.  Senior managers have assessed “the curve” to check it […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: incentives, motivation, performance management, video

4 Ways to Change Behaviour

26 December, 2013 by James Lawther 11 Comments

There are 4 ways to change people’s behaviour: The first is the stick: Beat people until they do what you want. The stick works, but people hate being controlled, they will rebel — sooner or later.  Repression is not a great strategy. The second is the carrot: Provide an incentive.  Incentives work beautifully, until you remove […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement, Tools & Techniques Tagged With: conformity, customer behaviour, group think, human nature, incentives, motivation, political will, reinforcing behaviour, video

The Simple Reason People Won’t do as You Ask

27 July, 2013 by James Lawther 7 Comments

Girl in Burqa

Some people just won’t follow commands. They won’t follow directives; they hate being told to what to do. This is a problem, particularly if you want them to behave differently, if you want that all elusive “cultural change”. Some cultural changes are harder than others Imagine the challenges facing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the man who […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: human nature, motivation, reinforcing behaviour

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