Want to See Greater Employee Motivation and Accountability?

In 1967, psychologist Martin Seligman and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania began a series of experiments subjecting three groups of dogs to a series of shocks. Dogs in Group 1 were simply placed in an experimental area and released without incident. Dogs in Group 2 were subjected to a series of shocks that they could end by pressing a lever. And dogs in Group 3 were presented with repeated shocks over which they had no control. (Word quickly spread among the dogs to avoid Group 3 if at all possible).
In a second phase of the study, all three groups of dogs were placed in a situation where they were subjected to electrical shocks that they could avoid by simply jumping over a low partition. Dogs from Groups 1 and 2 quickly and easily learned to avoid the shocks, while dogs from Group 3, for the most part, lay down and whimpered, never attempting to escape their situation. They had apparently lost all motivation to move, with no incentive to solve their painful problem.
Employees in modern workplaces are not dogs (by and large), nor are they subjected to regular electrical shocks by curious researchers. But a wide range of Fortune 500 workplaces are filled with employees who suffer from the same powerless condition displayed by the dogs in Group 3, a state Seligman famously called “learned helplessness,” in which people or animals feel that they are unable to positively influence their surroundings or their personal situation.
Let’s face it. Many, if not most, modern workplaces are riddled with learned helplessness. In our consulting work to improve employee engagement and performance, we regularly hear senior leaders lament that too many of their employees lack accountability for solving important business problems. These employees don’t seem motivated to go the extra mile. They don’t seem to care about delivering world-class customer service. Even more puzzling is the fact that these same employees show tremendous passion and energy in their personal lives—maintaining Facebook pages with thousands of friends or organizing high-impact community service projects over a single weekend.
The difference between employee behavior inside and outside the walls of these workplaces can often be traced to a basic truth about human motivation. We human beings (and dogs as well) demonstrate responsibility over those things that we can influence. We care about what we can control, at least in part. Conversely, we tend to throw up our hands and “punt” on those issues over which we seem powerless.
Helplessness and inaction, after all, are not inborn traits. They are, as Seligman demonstrated, learned states. In general, most people feel relatively free and empowered to positively influence their personal environment. On the other hand, they often feel constrained and confused about how to positively influence their workplace environment. In many cases, business environments constructed by senior managers lack clear avenues through which the typical employee can exert control over outcomes they care most about, and outcomes that are most critical to business success.
The good news for business leaders is that emerging methodologies can provide managers and employees with more meaningful ways to engage each other, and to influence important workplace problems that need solving. A simple but powerful example is the use of social media to enrich employee recognition programs in ways that not only improve employee retention and enhance team performance, but also—through simple but powerful peer-to-peer recognition programs—put the grand lever ofemployee loyalty and motivation directly in the hands of employees themselves.
Helplessness, for those companies willing to commit to these new technologies, can be unlearned as well. And the positive payoff, as measured by employee performance and productivity, can be game-changing.
Let LoyalNation design and deliver an employee motivation and retention program that can be a game changer for your company.
John Bradberry http://www.readyfounder.com

Was this helpful? 0 0 Comments

You're reading Want to See Greater Employee Motivation and Accountability?.