I've recently been doing time on a committee for a local women's group that's sponsoring a Women's Expo later this month. Part of my job is to get local businesses to pony up sponsorship money...which is how I came to find myself standing outside the office of the Human Resources manager for one of those nationwide big box home improvement stores. I'd made an appointment to ask for money in person - it's usually harder for people to turn you down when you're sitting right in front of them. Unfortunately, the HR manager wasn't there - had I been stood up? Apparently so, although her assistant (who found me standing outside the open office door) assured me it was nothing personal. Appointments were missed on a regular basis. The assistant offered to make another appointment for me and then suggested I call a half hour before showing up...just to make sure that the meeting was still on. I asked for a business card with the HR manager's direct dial number.
As the assistant rummaged through the HR manager's desk to find a card, I noticed a huge bowl of candy on her desk. A sweet freak! I must have said that out loud, 'cause the assistant shook her head and said, "Those are rewards." Rewards? According to the side kick, the HR manager uses candy to reward people for meeting their sales goals and to motivate them to sell even more. I had to sit. I had to catch my breath. I had to believe I hadn't heard the side kick correctly. Surely, the HR manager of a nationwide company didn't pitch candy bars to her employees like fish to a bunch of seals. But alas...she did. Because she believes that humans are motivated by things outside themselves (although it's beyond the pale how you come to conclude that someone would push themselves for a Mars bar).
I made another appointment with the HR manager. But now my focus had shifted. I didn't care so much about nailing down that sponsorship money. Now I wanted to introduce her to the work of David McClelland. I wanted her to know and understand the concept of intrinsic motive drive. I wanted to introduce her to the drive for affiliation, the drive for achievement and the drive for power - I wanted her to understand the three motive drives that live within each one of us and account for 95% of all human behavior. And I wanted her to understand that candy bars are just candy bars.
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