Bill said:
Try it Mike. [assuming "Bill" meant intrinsic vs extrinsic and not
inhaling!<g>]
You'll be surprised pleasantly.
Bill,
I want to say that I am NOT staging a case for extrinsic rewards over
intrinsic inspiration! I am merely trying to keep people honest when they
pontificate.<g>
I like your Navy story and being a former jar head, share some of the
feelings. I see so much of our discussion as a right vs wrong discussion
which makes an us vs them scenario.
I have been wrestling with Kohn and Deming for a long time in my mind and
being in practice I find a continuum of motivational mechanisms. This
continuum is often multi-dimensional. I live my life from a center of
doing what I love, so I understand the value of intrinsic inspiration
which provides a source of motivation and energy for me.
However, while EVERYONE may have this potential, I see most abdicate
it...in many ways. [and not always of their own volition] Trying to remain
in the practical realm as I am standing in the theoretical soup, I find
myself being pulled in many different ways. Knowing from "whence you
speak" yet viewing reality not as I would like it but as it "seems" to be,
I realize that we need to proceed very carefully in the direction of
destabilizing much of the conditioned response our corporate norms have
created over time regarding motivation and inspiration.
I want to say this. I believe that intrinsic inspiration creates higher
sustained performance levels, greater adaptive response and certainly
creates more space for emergent innovation than does extrinsic reward,
however I am not ready to abandon extrinsic reward in the scope of change
we have to make-ON A BROAD SCALE-in response to rapidly accelerating
change.
I think we will have to build SUPPORT for any movement towards a
society/group that uses strictly intrinsic mechanisms to drive performance
and sustainability-not unlike we do for any other types of "radical
change" and extrinsic to intrinsic is radical in terms of current
practices.
Hope that clears up any misconceptions. In the meantime, let the games
begin!<g>
--mike jay quarterback@msn.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>