When it comes to motivation, the first question is: "What motivates you, professionally?". Asking the question so directly I fear the answer might come just as quickly and simply: money. So we're going to try a wrap-around approach, because if we sit back and think about it, there are other factors.
It can be the money, the desire to learn, the power, the recognition... But it can also be the environment in which you work, right? And the environment can make you productive, efficient and deliver what is asked of you. And I say this because of the rat amusement park experiment. You can find the details below.
"The rat park experiment" took place at the beginning of the 70s, at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and it targeted addiction. We often associate the term addiction with other words: drugs, alcohol, smoking – all of which are harmful habits. There would be other associations, such as "dependency on your look", but even in this case, dependency still does not acquire a positive connotation.
The research was on drug-induced addiction, and the studies were conducted on laboratory mice. The first time, the mice were drugged daily, for a certain period of time, which was considered necessary for drug addiction to set in. After the first stage was over, the mice were given the freedom of choice: they could drink plain water or water containing the drug administered during the first week. The conclusion of this first experiment shows that, overwhelmingly, the mice did not resist the temptation of the narcotics and continued to drink drugged water, ignoring plain water.
One element that was taken into account much later, however, is related to the conditions in which those laboratory mice lived. Each mouse was kept alone in a metal cage, isolated from contact with other mice, and its only interaction was with laboratory staff who came to change its water, feed it and once every three days to clean its cage. The duration of these interactions ended up being a few minutes to 24 hours, otherwise the mice were totally isolated.
It came to one researcher's attention that, in the wild, mice are highly social animals, and that where there is a mouse, its family is sure to live. And where there is a family of mice... in a short time a whole colony of dozens and hundreds of individuals appears. With this behavior in mind, the question arose: Will mice in their natural environment develop the same drug addiction as those isolated in cages?
Bruce Alexander, that's the name of the researcher, redid the experiment that proves that drugs are addictive, but he made some small changes. This is how "the duck park experiment" was born. He followed exactly the conditions of stages 1 and 2 of the original experiment, but instead of individual cages he built an amusement park for rats. In a large cage, several square meters, with glass walls (so that light can penetrate) he created places to climb, cans as individual hiding places, running wheels for mice, soft and nice-smelling sawdust as a place to slept and also put some beautifully colored photos on the walls of the cage.
The last element: he introduced several mice, of different sexes and ages, into the cage so that they could socialize, climb, play, have fun. Under these conditions, in the second stage, when the mice had the alternative of drinking plain water or water with drugs (the same drugs that give addiction), it was found that most of the mice did not need "good sensations" to live a life of mousey happiness. So, Bruce Alexander did the same experiment, but the conclusion of his study was fundamentally different from the first one.
Do you remember that we started from the question: what motivates you? And I mentioned the experiment with mice to see the influence of the environment on your motivation. Whether you're at the office or at home, look around you – do you feel like you're in an amusement park or isolated in a cage?
I personally like a workplace where I can interact with colleagues, drink coffee and talk about our projects, passionately support our ideas, change them, improve them. Then let's take a break, have an ad hoc contest to throw the sheets of wrong ideas in the trash and whoever loses make the coffee. I like to go out to eat together, between us, or with clients, I like to... Wait, I got carried away and I was describing the workplace where I like to work.
But I didn't ask if you'd like your workplace to look like an amusement park - and then I made the classic mistake: I discovered what motivates me and automatically assumed it would motivate you too . So here are some questions that help us avoid this trap and give a clearer outline of motivation:
- How do I behave when I'm motivated?
- What is the basis of my motivation?
- What motivates others who are different from me?
- What can I do, concretely, to motivate others?
- How can I create a motivating work environment for my team?
These questions, but especially the answers - are integrated in the "Management Academy" program, delivered together with my colleagues from Marco Polo CEE. You can also find them in the "Presentation Skills" course.
Article written by Alexander Caruntu