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What really motivates workers

One of the Breakthrough Ideas for 2010 (reported in the Harvard Business Review, January-February 2010) is research about what really motivates workers.

The research found that on days when workers have a sense of making progress, or overcoming obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak. On days when they feel they are spinning their wheels or encountering roadblocks to meaningful accomplishment, their moods and motivation are lowest.

Silos are the single biggest obstacle to making progress In large mature organisations. Silos cause excessive politics, division of work and pettiness. Each silo tries to maximise its effectiveness at the expense of the effectiveness of the overall system.

People who should be on the same team end up fighting each other for resources, information and attention. Silos lead to internal focus, partial solutions, poor communication, hoarding resources and poor customer service.

When new people inside these silos come across roadblocks and spin their wheels they become angry, frustrated, stressed and demotivated. Before long, all the passion is squeezed out of them and they throw up their hands in despair. After a time they learn to accept the situation and perform as well as they can but its a tiny fraction of their potential.

For more on deSILOnisation...

The solution

Silos are not a structural issue, they are the result of poor thinking. Managers tend to respond to silos by reorganising but this is hardly ever the most important aspect nor the place to start. What we need to do is to change thinking. This is what we do in our DeSILOnisation Program. When silo thinking is replaced with collaborative thinking its as though people are waking up for the first time in years or like a prisoner released from prison. Suddenly their drive to succeed increases and their emotions become positive. Nothing is impossible.

If youre sick of the lack of collaboration, honesty and speed within your organisation you need to look carefully at how to increase its connections, collaboration and common direction. To implement the breakthrough idea for 2010, talk to us about DeSILOnisation Program. Its one of the most cost-effective processes I know.

Bruce Holland
Virtual Group Business Consultants
email: bruce.holland@virtual.co.nz
Phone +6421620456 or Skype Bruce.Holland
web: http://www.virtual.co.nz