Yes, Winfried, there are other factors than feedback involved in
determining whether someone does something. Motivation is an important
one. I ignored it in my metaphor of walking to the door because (1) we
were talking about why feedback is important, not about how get someone to
perform, and (2) in my almost 20 years' experience in business, I have
found that most people are highly (intrinsically) motivated to do a good
job.
This does not mean that extrinsic motivation is unimportant -- there are
lots of distractions in the workplace and strong motivations to do other
things rather than focus on the job. Nor does it mean that one can take
intrinsic motivation for granted -- much can be done to better design jobs
that are intrinsically more motivating. Giving people a sense of
"ownership" in their work is one good way. As someone once asked me,
"Have you ever been motivated to wash your rental car?"
Also, thanks for pointing out that in my metaphor the absence of feedback
is like the absence of light (or any other clue to where the door is.)
That's good, and makes the metaphor more vivid if one imagines oneself in
a completely dark room trying to find the door out.
--"John W. Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>