Motivate me

We’ve all heard the speeches at some point. You know, the ones your manager flings around to help you get motivated for whatever crap you have to deal with. Motivation in the workplace is a big thing. I get it, I really do. With it people perform better, deliver more value, blah blah blah.

But how do you motivate people? Not being a particularly people-oriented person myself it takes quite a bit of effort. I find it difficult to relate the “classroom” teaching of motivational speakers to actual workplace situations. There’s help out there however. Taking the things backwards may prove to be a helpful way of looking at things.

Just today my boss came up to me to share his latest find: despair.com. The site made its name through a series of De-Motivation posters and a management book, “The Art of Demotivation“. Flipping through the site’s pages - and especially the videos in the Spin section - proves to be a helpful reminder of how some things you see every day are just plain wrong. I highly recommend the one on “Addressing Employee Complaints“.