Science of Motivation: Dan Pink (TED Talk)

Career Analyst Daniel Pink talks about how the traditional 'carrot and stick' method of motivation doesn't work.  About how there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.  Especially, as we move out the recession, the future of rewarding performance is not simply about paying higher wages.  Dan argues that it is down to three things; Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. That's why Wikipedia is so successful compared to a well funded Microsoft Encarta.

He speaks about many experiments including the "candle experiment" and quotes many researchers, including  LSE professors! :)

Dan's website for more info: www.danpink.com

Marshall Ganz: Distributed Leadership (behind Obama Campaign) and Public Narrative

As part of our Indicorps workshop reader (with which we shall have 'text based dialogue' sessions), I came across this article that particularly interested me.  It is called "What is a Public Narrative? (2008) by Marshall Ganz" (click to read PDF).

Practicing leadership, argues Ganz, is enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty - requires engaging the heart, the head, and the hands: motivation, strategy, and action. (exactly what Jayesh bhai at Manav Sadhna says!)  Through narrative, or story, we can articulate the experience of choice in the face of urgent challenge and we can learn how to draw on our values to manage the anxiety of agency (things of the past and future), as well as its exhilaration. The two factors required are 'pain' and 'hope'.

With particular reference to the 2004 Obama speech, Audacity of Hope, at the Democratic National Convention, he explains his concept of Public Narrative in three parts:

1. Story of Self - who I am, what are my values, my experiences, why I do what I do.  Why I have been called.
2. Story of Us - communicating who we are, our shared values, shared experiences, why we do what we do.  Why we have been called.
3. Story of Now - transforms the present into a moment of challenge, hope and choice.  Urgent challenge to act.

When you hear Obama's speech, you can clearly identify these three aspects - which is what made that speech and his proceeding campaign a successful one. Ganz designed this approach as a way to learn how to translate our values into action.

As a British Indian and an Indicorps Fellow, I can see the power of story very clearly in the people around me and emanating from inspirational mentors we meet along the way.  It can be a powerful tool to relate to and motivate those around us by sharing our own narrative with clearly identified common values (alive in our communities, such as love, respect, justice, compassion).

Below is a video recorded at MIT, where Marshall Ganz gives a talk about the above principles and highlights the concept of 'distributed leadership' as the successful model of shared, empowering leadership, that can motivate people, particularly in the voluntary sector.

(click here for this MIT Video page - where you can also download into iTunes)

Information Activism

http://www.informationactivism.org/

Ideas on how to use technology to get your message across to create social change.

Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence) - Talks at Google

Just finished watching this captivating scientifically-backed talk by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence (wikipedia on EI) and respected psychologist.  As I'm working with graduates, the education system and employment, it becomes even more evident how so much emphasis is placed on IQ - cognitive intelligence - the grades you get in school and how high your degree percentage is.  From the education side of things, the realisation of emotional intelligence, or simply the competencies that make good employees beyond the ability to compute calculations, is worryingly absent.  With the advent of multinational business, companies like Infosys are changing the landscape of graduate/undergraduate training by rewarding those students who have personality, communication skills and demonstrate a good ability to work with others - typical traits of people with high emotional intelligence.  Thankfully, Daniel mentions that Emotional Intelligence has the characteristic of 'neuroplasticity' - in other words, it can be re-moulded through life.  One of the proven ways of doing this is actually meditation (it strengthens the prefrontal cortex).

Definitely a good one to watch:

Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify | Video on TED.com

Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify | Video on TED.com

‘maa baap ne bhulsho nahi’

[Gujarati translated: 'Forget not your mother-father']

Living alone in an apartment busy with artefacts from his worldly adventures, Raj Melgiri, a 70 year-young full time volunteer of Vidya Poshak's Graduate Finishing School captivates me with his life story. A story that involved an arranged marriage, working in the US for a period of time before his wife could join him, the many struggles and trials of starting at the bottom and then gaining financial freedom for his entire family. That financial freedom came at the opportunity cost of family time, albeit resulting in the best quality education for his children, a benefit they only came to realise recently.

Only last week, he was showing me his sky diving video, jumping out over the California countryside. "Take the chance and do it anyway" is his approach to life as he now prioritises his purpose in life – dedicated to the social service of training rural students with employment skills.

A dialogue ensued where I related my ancestral migration from India, via Kenya, to England. I spoke about similar struggles and challenges. It made me wonder – why, when our parents try so hard to give us everything that they did not get, such as access to money, comfortable education, luxuries in life (ever wondered how, what was a luxury for our parents generation has become a need for ours?), they forget to give us the things they actually did have? After all, the value-rich moral citizens they have become is the result, more so if anything, of the struggles they endured.

When I ask my student friends early in the training cycle, "Why do you want this job?" they would naively answer "to please my parents". This sentiment of pleasing parents, albeit a noble virtue, is not what the interviewer wants to hear. Previous employer responses include "are your parents applying for this job or you?". As harsh as this may sound, this innocence has been a teacher of values to me. The immense respect and duty these young Indians take for the parents puts us NRIs to shame.

As a young British Indian, my life has been relatively comfortable. How can parents expect us to understand their life journeys if ours is so different? I feel lucky to be here in Dharwad, Karnataka, as fellow working in grassroots development – where through the lives of these students, I learn about myself, my culture and my roots.

Our parents bust a gut for us. And just look how much they have achieved – they managed to survive in a strange foreign country, they took low-end jobs in poor conditions, went beyond racial prejudice to create financial security. They built a home for us. With our comforts, skills, opportunities and family support – it would be an insult to not achieve a multiple of their accomplishments.

If there is one lesson I want to leave India with, it is this: those old folks gave us more than you will ever realise or understand. Anything you can possibly do to repay the debt will be insufficient. Beyond moral obligation, there is a deep loving bond that drives this desire to want to serve them through their twilight years, even knowing that sometimes, it may feel like God himself has sent them to punish us!

My Mum and Dad (being silly wearing 3D shades at home):

Student Politics: GFS ‘Panchayat’

Sitting in a classroom, with the future generations of the world largest democracy, it dawned on me that we needed a student leadership body, elected by the students for the students. These same students have come from villages where the 'gram panchayat' system of governance dissolves national and state power to a handful of responsible villagers, so have firsthand experience of such a system.

Our aim: to empower five individuals with the ability to manage the welfare, needs and social suggestions of the group of 44 students. After being given a few days notice of election, the students had limited time to consider nomination and what their message would be. On a Sunday morning, which students usually have for extra classes followed by holiday in the afternoon, they flooded the room with election excitement. A total of 13 candidates enthusiastically came to the stage, speaking for a few minutes each about their ideas for the student body and why they should be voted in. The students were then sent out of the room to form a queue as we converted the classroom into a temporary voting booth. The names of the candidates were written clearly on the white board as we allowed 3 voters at a time to come and complete a pre-printed voting form (giving them the three votes each).

Whilst they were eating lunch, the ballots were processed and I had the pleasure of addressing the crowd once again. As tension rose, we began naming the complete Panchayat, starting with the 'Sevaks' (Panchayat committee members) and ending with the 'Sarpanch' (leader) – in order of popularity. To avoid embarrassment we did not release the number of votes, just the priority as represented by the voters.

Our first GFS Panchayat had been elected. Led by Sachin, his sevaks will be Irappa, Prashant, Chaitra and Mangala.

There are normally many negative connotations with politics in India – however, I believe the only way to change this will be through the youth movement potent within this enormous nation. These students will meet on a weekly basis, initially with guidance, to discuss difficulties and suggestions. They will arrange GFS 'Sabhas' where the complete student body will meet in an assembly format. We shall see how they progress over the remaining 9 weeks at GFS.

Also worth mentioning, is that out of the five students that were elected, two of them were girls, ensuring fair representation of the group.