Why Money Won’t Motivate … And What Really Will…
Crash! Bang! Boom went the world economy, and something strange happened, the second ‘Age of Greed’ in the last 4 decades (the first ‘Age of Greed’ in the 80’s was epitomized by the movie Wall Street and Gordon Gecko’s famous line: “Greed is good!”) does not seem so sexy anymore… all the hard work to pile up the cash went up in a smoking pyre of lies, greed and deception…

Money has somehow lost it’s sheen as a motivation factor. All the scrambling for position, all the offers for a better future and promotion if you just worked hard,  has turned into a breathless exercise to just hang on financially for many.

This is why today I want to share the case study of an outstanding company with you:

I first met the Philippines Actmedia team at their company’s regional powwow in Bali last year. As country team after country team stepped up and delivered their yearly reports I sat back and took in the information. The numbers were good and their targets just-on-the-money, the main question was: how do we keep our staff motivated! This question is of special importance for the company given that it is Asia’s leader for in-store customer activation (have you ever tasted that little cup of free coffee, taken that freshly steamed sample of shrimp or licked the dollop of new ice cream at your local supermarket? Then you know what Actmedia does).

The challenge of motivating in-store activation specialists is a big one: these jobs simply don’t go hand-in-hand with a gold-plated pay-cheque at the end of the month and a chauffeur driven limousine.

So, slice and dice it as you will, the market realities dictated that the money incentives for the teams would never become breathtakingly awesome.

This is when the Philippines team took the stage and ripped the whole motivation game wide open:

Picture after picture of bright, smiling, engaged faces of in-store activation specialists lit up the screen. These were not faces of people hamming up their best smile for the camera, these smiles had a different, deeply meant, quality to them… they were REAL!

These people were proud, open, self assured individuals who had that certain je ne sais qoi about them that attracts other people, they had a sense of self, a shining pride that attracts you, unlike other drab sales people and product pushers one is prone to encounter in supermarket isles.

As the presentation progressed the reason for this inner light permeating the team members became evident:

This team had a deep sense of meaning & contribution.

Money alone won’t buy you happiness. And when you are at the lower rungs of the income pyramid you may never make enough money to give you the trappings of financial wealth! But you have something special:  you have your soul, your purpose and the ability to contribute to others.

This simple and powerful insight drove the ladership to look for ways to create deep meaning by contribution:

Every year the Actmedia Philippines team joins to help the less fortunate in the most direct way possible: they go into the slums of Manila and build houses for the poor!

Lifting the emotional burden of perceived helplessness from the shoulders of their team members (we are low income earners, we have no power, how can we change the world?) and allowing them to create massive positive changes in the lives of their less fortunate compatriots has created a total shift in consciousness within the team. Team members now understand that they are not just another cog in the system, that their lives have meaning way beyond the banking of a pay-cheque at the end of the month, that they can make a massive difference.

This powerful insight has created a climate in which such ‘hard to come by’ attitudes as: motivation, ownership, pro-active thinking are thriving as if by magic.

The message is simple: business is not just business, it is an opportunity to create deep personal meaning and engagement for people to live valuable destinies. Choose a cause, get going, the world needs all the help it can get.

Belief Moves Mountains
5 Phases To Transform A ‘Team Of Losers’

Step 1. The ‘Realistic Cynic’ Feels Doomed
Here I was standing in on a Bali beach in the morning sunshine ready to knock my head against a coconut palm. All my problems had started with a good idea…

I had decided to sign up for this super expensive 10-day retreat that was supposed to reveal the secrets of superior business success to us handful of initiates who had enough cash to afford the rather steep ticket.

So there I was, standing in the first rays of the early morn cursing myself for my stupidity: I had expected to be sitting in a plush conference room, listening to some wise business guru. Far from it: the organizers had split us participants into randomly chosen teams and told us we were supposed to learn about cooperation and leadership by building a championship beach volleyball team to compete and beat the other teams in 9 days time.

As I looked around this randomly assorted group of people I ‘knew’ we were doomed! Not only did I not have the foggiest notion of how to get a ball across a net… there also was a guy with a severe cross-eye condition, a lady with a rather noticeable weight issue and other such souped up couch potatoes whose closest contact with sports had been punching in the ESPN number on their TV remotes!

Step 2. The Fearless Positive Leader Steps Up
“I know THIS is the winning team, I can SEE that!” a loud voice ripped me out of my ‘realistic’ and defeatist musings.

There he was, a 6′-something, muscle packed beach god with a California perma-smile beaming total confidence and can-do spirit.

My conservative, cynical (but to my mind ‘realistic’), European mind recoiled from this American ‘BS artiste’…

I mean: Where we looking at the same team here…? Or was he living in a parallel fantasy reality?
But the beach god kept right on coming: about how we would figure out each person’s strength and make it work for the team, how we would find it easy and fun to learn this game and how we would handsomely beat all comers on day 10.

Never ever was there the slightest doubt in his voice and demeanor: our victory was a foregone conclusion!

Step 3. The Leader Takes Responsibility & Overcomes ‘Realistic Cynicism’
He asked us for our prior volleyball experience, which turned out to be a grand total of zero. So he asked us if we minded him being the captain of our team. “Sure, whatever, Captain Plastic Fantastic” went through my mind as I raised my hand in agreement. I mean, what options did we have, right?

Step 4. The Leader Holds The Vision & Builds, Builds, Builds The Team
Ed, or Mr. Ed to us, moved swiftly, did a little try-out and assigned us to our positions. Always positive, reinforcing, supportive, motivating. Slowly his total positivity permeated my cynical attitude of rejection, it overcame my fear of making mistakes and losing face on the ball court.

I actually started looking forward to go to each morning practice and see how our team bloomed from strength to strength under the warm sunshine of Mr Ed’s attention.

By day 10 Mr Ed had transformed us into passionate, fearless, go-getting, tight- knit volleyball gangstas ready to take on a bear on heat!
Long story short: we smoked every single team they threw at us. We were running on adrenaline and certainty! Mr Ed had installed such focus, fierceness and determination in us that we KNEW we would win, and we did!

Step 5. The Leader Is The Chief Believer
The last score had been made, the whoops of joy were subsiding and I decided to ask Mr Ed a question that had been nagging me all these days “Ed, how did you know we were the winning team on day one? I thought we were total losers who didn’t stand a chance!”

Ed looked at me, smiled and said “The first day I saw you guys it scared my pants off! But what choice did I have? The choice was to lead you to victory!”

You make the choice:
Lead Your Team To Victory
Or
Step Aside

Storytelling & Leadership
Lately I have been invited by a number of C-level suite managers to help them move their teams through the challenging times many companies are facing. One of the interesting observations I made during many of these sessions was how ‘professional’ most of these managers were as they tried to communicate with their teams.

While the intention of the communication was to elicit an esprit de corps, a common mentality of ‘yes, we can’ (to borrow a phrase that has become a game changer in US history) most of these managers achieved the opposite. Fact based, devoid of emotions and, as I mentioned above, ‘professional’, their communication to the team ended up being a lifeless stream of words that did not elicit the hoped for effect in the audience.
Leaders throughout history have always known a little secret: want to get your followers fully emotionally involved and rearing to go? Use stories and metaphors, paint pictures, create images and the people will buy in.

The Keys To Their Heart
Of course this contradicts a large percentage of the left-brain driven current management elite who trust that the facts and nothing but the facts suffice to get a logical (professional) mind to come to the correct conclusion and take the unavoidable actions…

But the brain is made up of more than the left sphere. There is still the right sphere, the emotional/creative side of us humans. It is here that the true engagement ‘from the heart’ happens. It is this part of the brain that you, the leader, will want to set on fire to get your team fully bought in to follow your cause… and the keys to this side of the brain are not facts and figures… the keys are metaphors and stories!

The Moon In A Bowl Of Water
Here is a nice little story shared by the Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm to explain the stillness of the mind and it’s importance when wanting to perceive truth:
Take a bowl and fill it with water. Now set this bowl on the ground under a full moon. As you step back and the water has time to settle down you will be able to see the moon reflected in the water with perfect clarity, in all it’s details. You are able to perceive the essence of the moon, it’s total truth.

Now, step up to the bowl and shake it! What will happen? The water surface will be filled with ripples, shattering the clear and true image of the moon, leaving you with a distorted, ugly image of the moon.
The water is like our spirit, in stillness it will perceive truth, if it is agitated by the ego it will only see distorted realities and come to the wrong conclusions.

Blame It On Darwin
Just in case your left brain is butting in at this point and muttering “well, I’m a serious kinda fella and who’s got time for silly storytelling anyhow?” you might want to consider that our brain’s predilection to learning and making decisions through stories is anchored in our evolutional trajectory:
Before the advent of the alphabet, paper, computers, powerpoints and exel sheets human beings were guided and learned through oral history that kept the cultural fiber of a tribe/culture alive… in other words: all our cultures are based on a foundation of story telling!

So, yes, our very survival through the evolutional cycle depended on how well we learned from, and reacted to the stories our elders told us around the campfire… isn’t it time you discovered some of that old magic again and got your company tribe around the campfire?

Need Some Help Getting Started?
Having fully grasped the importance and implications of stories and metaphors many of these C-level leaders discovered to their dismay that their ‘story telling muscle’ had atrophied over the years through lack of use!

Fear not, get in touch, let me know what kind of message you want to convey to your people and I will support you in finding the appropriate story. This support is strictly pro bono to help you and your team move fast and master the challenging times ahead.

Write me a mail to: roger AT rogerkonopasek DOT com and together we will find the story to get your team going