Motivation
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
Overworked? Could Reducing Workloads be the Key to Improved Results?
We may be at a tipping point. It just might be that we have hit the limit on how much we can do on any given day, week or month. Most of us have more work on our to-do lists than we can…
Leveraging the 4:1 Ratio—In Sports and in Business
It’s built into what we do with our clients, in understanding and applying the science of behavior. While it may not seem revolutionary, correctly applying the 4:1 Ratio matters and does affect…
Don’t Blame Employees for Lack of Effort—Managers Hold the Key
It’s generally agreed that persuading employees to give more than required can make or break a company. Yet many leaders struggle to get that discretionary effort. The 2022 Gallup State of the…
5 Fool-Proof Ways to Set and Accomplish Productive Goals
Goal setting is a common practice in organizations and can lead to improved performance and productivity. But many companies struggle to properly execute the goal setting process. Check out our…
Does Money Make You Smart?
This post originally appeared on Aubrey’s blog 8-19-09 Let's say that you make business decisions where the impact on the future of the business is not well-thought out. The decisions are…
Fast Company Article on "Stack Ranking"
It’s hard to believe but Stack Ranking has found its way back into corporations as a means for motivating employees. What will it take for leaders to understand that this practice doesn’t work and in…
Rank and Yank: Would a Rose by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?
Jack Welch joined the fray about Microsoft’s abandoning “rank and yank” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Jack Welch: ’Rank and Yank’? That’s Not How It’s Done.” Welch now says that rank…
Contingent Reinforcement, Where?
Who would have thought in our lifetime there would be contingent reinforcement in Russia? Apparently you can perform squats on an interactive machine and earn free subway rides. Now that's a real win…
A Better Way for HP to Boost Performance
Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Meg Whitman has rekindled the debate over whether to telecommute with a memo urging employees to show up at the office more often. She wrote that “HP needs all hands…
Building Reinforcement Into Your Work
Managers can’t be everywhere all the time. So an important part of providing positive reinforcement to keep desired behaviors going is to build it into the work. This is referred to as natural…
Rank and Yank and Other Business Nonsense
When will they learn? I wrote my book Oops! 13 management practices that waste time and money in 2009 and the one that has caught the most attention is Performance Appraisal. An article by Will…
My Two Cents About Money As a Motivator, Once Again
Let me start this by saying that I am a fan of Clark Howard, the consumer empowerment guru. However, he just wrote a piece titled, “What makes workers happiest? It’s not money!”. I think…
When is Enough, Enough in Education?
On NPR this week I heard a report of a study on teacher education in the US. The study evaluated over 1400 colleges of education and found that 7 out of 10 are doing a poor job in teaching…
The Behavioral Minute: Personal Productivity
Behavior is all around us: the good and the bad. Yet so often the actions and reactions of others go by without thought. In support of our quest to bring the science of behavior to the masses…
Why is it Always THE PEOPLE?
Maybe it is because I turned 78 last week, but it seems that every day I read something or see something on TV that drives me crazy. Even though by the usual standards, I am at the age where people…
Play Angry Birds if You Want to Know Leadership?
Well, it had to happen. I received an email advertising a series of papers, HR Lessons from Angry Birds. It seems that what or whoever becomes famous will sooner become the subject of a…
I Am Not a Category! Redux
I have written on this and will probably do so again but an email advertisement for a book, Wars at Work, caught my attention recently. The author, Kaveh Mir, believes that psychometric tests…
Urinal Gamification Misses the Mark
However inconvenient it might be sometimes, emptying your bladder is inevitable. You might want to do it at the time, especially if the time is the middle of a long road trip, but it’s not something…