Posts Tagged ‘Motivation’
Handle Expectations with care
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 28, 2014
Handle Expectations with care
Expectations are intangibles, but their effect is quite real.
There is no such thing as “a bad guess, my mistake” in the financial analysis market.
One lousy cent lower than analysts’ forecast and the shares take a plunge.
Many companies bent over backward to meet financial analysts’ predictions. To escape from this Terror, companies started to publish their own estimate labelled “earning guidance”
The companies shot themselves in the foot as the analysts were heeding only these internal forecast, and studying more closely the companies performance and errors to boot.
Closely linked to personal expectation is the placebo effect.
Placebo are pills, treatments and therapies that are unlikely to improve health, but do so anyway.
Apparently, one third of patients who are given placebo get better because the biochemistry of the brain is altered by motivation.
Obviously, if you have a dead brain or a damaged brain (Alzheimer) then placebo has no effects whatsoever.
Teachers who are told that the next bunch of students have high IQ levels will do their best in order reach the performance expected from these students. These average students actually improve a lot at the end of the year.
Raise your expectations and those you care for in order to increase motivation in matters that you can control.
Best to anticipate surprises in order to better shield yourself from their nastiness.
Read The Art of Thinking Clear
How Bonuse systems destroy Motivation in employees?
Wolfenschiesen is a Swiss village in the center of the country. It was selected to store radioactive waste.
About 51% od the inhabitants were in favor of the proposal for various reasons, including the prospect of new jobs.
When researcher Bruno Frey mentioned a hypothetical reward of $5,000 for each town person, paid by the Swiss tax payers, those in favor dropped to 25%.
What of the problem of late parents coming to pick up their kids at closing time? As the day care center introduced a”late fee” tardiness increased: Parents were willing to pay the fee and delay the pick up arrival from work.
Apparently, a certain level of monetary incentives crowd out other types of incentives.
When people are willing to do a good deed, payment throw a wrench into the work.
Small and modest payment to NGO activists increased the motivation of the members, until a substantial bonus system encouraged teams to snub tasks that bring no extra rewards.
For uninspiring jobs such as bankers, insurance agents, financial auditors… financial motivation work wonders: What else could motivate people who are not that proud or enthused of what they are doing?
If you want your kids to do their homework, practice their talents every day, mow the lawn one a week… just give them a fixed amount of pocket money each week.
Any reward for each tasks will ruin the system since people believe that they are not For Sale.
Pocket money each week initiate the kid for saving his money and appreciating the value of money and the object he purchases.
Adonis Diaries 