Living in Cognitive Dissonance
Why People Take the Wrong Bus on The Wrong Day to Do The Wrong Job
Motivate my staff! It is the battle cry for many frustrated managers. It is a cry that has resulted in many hapless employees being guided through’motivational’, “inspirational” and ‘energizing” sessions that range from showmanship to banal debacles, including silly games that involve treasure hunts, flying squirrels and other paraphernalia that promote team spirit building. In order to know yourself better and own yourself better, you need to know why tapping should be avoided
Save Money and Get Real Results. Let’s face it: Why is it so difficult for people to be motivated? The answer is simple: Most people live in cognitive dissonance. The following test can be done: Gather your team and ask them the question: ‘What was the dream career you had when you were young? You can go through each member of your team individually. Your team may include potential pilots and doctors, artists, soccer players, and other skilled professionals. Only a small percentage of your team members will have done research on the topic and found the job they want. They are often the most self-motivated and successful members of your team. They live a life that is in alignment with their goals and dreams. This begs a question about what you will do to all the accountants who hoped to be painters, or salesmen who aspired to become pilots. These people are cognitive dissonant, people who wake up on wrong days to do the wrong jobs, and people you won’t be able to motivate because their heart isn’t in it.
Give Them Their Lives Back & Make Energy Powerhouses
Step 1: Get your people to overcome cognitive dissonance. Help them to understand why they haven’t followed their dreams. Unsurprisingly, most childhood dreams are destroyed early by the guidance of parents. This is because most children get this guidance too early in life. This prevents them from living out their life-fantasies until the day they can identify and focus on that one purpose. From our earliest years, I can recall how my father worried over us, watching every detail of our childhood dreams, and then dictating doom into all our plans. He conducted regular career interviews to discover what we wanted to do. He wanted me to become an archaeologist but I was too passionate for that. He worried that I would end up in a career of no return. He encouraged me to pursue engineering, which coincided with my own dreams. He was an outstanding engineer with 3 Masters degrees as well as a PhD. I had to study engineering to graduate and was ashamed to admit that I was probably the worst engineer certified to have ever been on this planet.