In the TEDX talk, A Simple Way to Inspire Your Team, David Burkus, a management researcher, discusses the importance of receiving and sharing feedback from the people who are being served by the work that is being done. He explained that focusing on who is being served and their reaction is a more effective way to motivate the team than purpose statements and mission statements which explain why the work is being done. They started the “We Shape History” campaign and focused on stories of what they have done in the past and then asked employees about who they serve now.
Type of Material:
Presentation
Recommended Uses:
The learning material can be used in a strategic leadership or organizational behavior class to discuss ways to motivate employees. It can also be shown at a company training and afterward have participants record the feedback that they have received from clients.
Another way to use the learning material is to post the video to a company's internal webpage such as a Microsoft TEAMS or Sharepoint site and encourage employees to share instances about the positive impact on someone who is served by the work that they do.
Technical Requirements:
Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, , Mozilla Firefox, YouTube
Identify Major Learning Goals:
After listening to the presentation, learners will be able to:
define pro-social purpose
explain the relationship between pro-social purpose and motivation
describe the Design Your Own History Campaign
identify the difference between collective and individual purpose
use feedback from clients to motivate themselves.
Target Student Population:
College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional Development courses in Organizational Development and Business Management.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Introduction to Business Management, Introduction to Behavioral Psychology
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The focus is on “who we serve” instead of “why you do what you do”.
Stories are motivational, especially when people can explain who they serve. Examples he provided included accountants who serve farmers (because they feed the nation” accountants who serve neighborhoods because they support loans and community improvement, and accountants who prevent terrorism because they work on money laundering.
Employee motivation is a current and relevant topic in today's society where we are experiencing a phenomenon called "quiet quitting" where demoralized employees exert a minimal amount of effort to maintain their jobs but do not go the extra mile at work.
At the start of their “We Shape History campaign”, they asked employees for 10,000 stories about who they serve; they received 42,000, and motivation and morale significantly increased.
Concerns:
None
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The learning objectives are easily identified
The relationship between purpose and motivation is explained.
The material can be integrated into curriculum assignments as an in-class presentation or an individual journaling assignment.
This presentation reinforces the concept that we are working for someone instead of just doing a job.
It also emphasizes the need for storytelling to develop effective approaches to raising morale and motivation.
People want to work on something that matters. Help people find the answer to the question “who?”. Ask who is served by the work that you do.
Concerns:
There are no accompanying practice exercises or other types instructional materials which identifies prerequisite knowledge, builds on prior concepts, or measures student learning outcomes.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The learning material was easy to use.
The speaker used humor and stories to engage the audience.
Close captioning and transcripts were available to make the video accessible.
For professional development, this could be used in multiple areas to help people identify those whom they serve and start rethinking mission statements based on who is served rather than why they are working and what they are doing.
Concerns:
The presentation was not interactive.
Creative Commons:
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