COMBINING MOTIVATION & PROBLEM SOLVING TO GROW BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Alloutcoach

On the latest episode of Alloutcoach, I spoke to Neel Doshi whose research on human motivation and performance at work has truly inspired me over the years.

Watch this video podcast to understand why I consider him one of the brightest minds in organizational change research who has created forward-thinking solutions that can transform your business. Neel Doshi is Co-founder and CEO of Vega Factor and Factor.AI, NY Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author of "Primed to Perform", multiple award-winning founder of various tech startups, MIT graduate in engineering and Wharton Business School MBA.

0:00 Intro 0:08 Episode Highlight 1:52 Neel Doshi Introduction 3:30 Why Neel decided to study human performance at work His journey from first job as software engineer at major bank and personal frustration from lack fulfillment and mediocre attempt at starting a company to researching the root causes and drivers of human motivation at work for the next 15 years 7:56 Various types of industries Neel Doshi has researched 8:58 Distinguishing and Ranking Tactical vs. Adaptive Types of Performance at work Tactical Performance refers to alignment to roles, objectives, and goals while adaptive performance refers to innovation, problem-solving, and improvisation. 13:23 Measuring Motivation to produce both Tactical and Adaptive Performance at Factor.AI Research indicates 6 motivational factors along a spectrum of stimulating or inhibiting performance: 1) play 2) purpose 3) potential (3 positive factors that stimulate adaptive performance), followed by 4) emotional pressure, 5) economic pressure, and 6) inertia (3 negative / inhibiting factors) in descending order 21:42 Tesla Model 3 Mass Market Case Study Real-world example confirming that relying completely on Tactical Performance alone through technology is insufficient and detrimental, and Adaptive Performance via human capacity to think critically is central to driving growth in business. Elon Musk's 2009 Tweet: "Excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated". 24:50 How do you measure performance through profitability vs social impact? Majority of the motivation of performance is local to the employee not global to the company. This is why social impact is not a driver of motivation or performance. 29:20 How to both perform and collaborate today when the pace of competition is rising so rapidly. Companies do not have to turn increasing external competition and global pressures into coersion and blame. They can make competition fun. Competition can make work more purposeful because an employee can feel like he/she matters more in the presence of an adversary. Companies turn competition into pressure rather than play and purpose. Play and purpose, our highest performance motivators are not bound by a limit and do not represent a zero-sum game unlike emotional or economic pressure, for example. So if companies are using emotional or economic pressure or indirect motives to drive performance they are fracturing collaboration by design. Collaboration suffers, and so does problem-solving and adaptive performance. When I do not have companies I work with that have internal competition, I create competitions. 35:13 What are some examples of new ways of working to drive higher motivation at work? Hierarchies and distinct roles are important to communicate diverse vantage points and perspectives. Metrics make work more fun because they provide a scoreboard to a game and can drive stronger performance as long as they are not weaponized by leaders. Similarly, performance reviews should be used not to blame and shame people but should involve teams to evaluate team performance together rather than use individual reviews to measure teams. 45:10 How Neel is currently stretching himself and lifting others Engineering stronger performance has become a science and there are specific solutions we have now built that are available for you.