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Passion for Innovation. First Factor: Motivation

1. Motivation and its Movement Mechanism

1.1. Motivational Impulses

The word motivation derives from the Latin motivus, meaning the cause of movement. Former athlete and American politician Jim Ryun is the creator of a statement that accurately explains why it is essential to the innovative process, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

A number of explanations have been offered on the motivation-action sequence. They seek to answer such questions such as: Why is it that something motivates us, or indeed, what is it that demotivates us? What are the keys needed to turn motivation into passion? All the explanations have made interesting contributions but none have succeeded in assuming a universal application, as it would probably seem too simplistic. Nevertheless, it is important to be familiar with them, since they help to explain our behaviour.

Edward Lee Thorndike (1911) is one of the pioneers in the study of motivation. His research using maze boxes are very well-known. These studies allowed Thorndike to observe that behaviour which is rewarded tends to become imprinted as learnt behaviour, while that which produces an unrewarding or irritating situation tends to become eliminated. This led him to frame his Law of Effect which states that we all tend to repeat actions for which we have received a reward, and to avoid those for which we have received punishment.

The years between 1940 and 1960 were a very fruitful period in this field. During this period theories were advanced that came under serious attack, yet are still the best known theories about why we perform an action. Some of the best known ones are Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the X and Y theories of Douglas McGregor.

Maslow (1943) saw man as a “perpetually wanting animal” moved by a pyramid of needs: physiological (food, shelter) safety (protection from physical and emotion harm), social (affection, friendship), self-esteem (status, recognition) and fulfilment (growth, achievement of potential). He sought to satisfy them in ascending order, and then ceased to be motivated once they are satisfied. He thus provided us with an interesting foundation for understanding behaviour, but he committed a serious error in his interpretation of nature, given that human beings almost always want more.

Figure 10.1 Maslow’s Pyramid

McGregor (1960) studied the implications of Maslow’s theory in organizations and expressed his conclusions on the X & Y theories. His X theory assumed that people avoid work, which means that they have to be controlled, directed and even threatened. Under this management style, motivation arises from fear and threats. Alternatively we have the Y theory which assumes that people like to work, that they are capable of directing themselves and that they want (and need) to assume responsibilities. This focus also stated that people are creative and that their intellectual capacities can be very valuable. The work showed that traditional management theories are all too often based on supposition X. This led McGregor to become a firm defender of the second perception, and he made a very significant effort to demonstrate that human capital can help companies achieve their goals.

Both theories are very well known nowadays, but they have suffered the effects of in-depth examination aimed at testing their validity in the field of work. This has led to the development of new explanations that provide more modern reasoning, although some of them are already several decades old. Worthy of note among them are: David McClelland’s theory of the Three Needs, B. F. Skinner’s theory of Positive Reinforcement, Edwin Locke’s theory of Goal Setting and Victor Vroom’s theory of Expectancy.

McClelland (1961) demonstrates that three acquired (not innate) needs exist: needs for achievement, power and affiliation. We all share these needs; what differentiates us is how they affect us; in other words, their motivational impulses. If we take this theory a little further, we see that high productivity appears as a result of a match between work and the way these three needs manifest in each individual. McClelland paid special attention to the need for success, understood as striving and the desire to do things better and indeed to achieve excellence. He saw this need as a potent driver or biological engine that selects, activates and directs behaviour. According to his research, people with a strong need for success prefer activities that provide challenge – moderately difficult tasks (as opposed to very easy or very difficult tasks), for which they are responsible for the outcome.

Skinner’s theory of Positive Reinforcement (1974) was formulated on the basis of Edward Lee Thorndike’s work. Skinner’s Law of Reinforcement states that our behaviour can become strengthened or weakened as a function of what follows. Positive reinforcement strengthens it, while the elimination of positive reinforcement weakens it. This theory also postulates that punishment helps to reduce a given behaviour, but it does not teach new ones. The main limitation of this theory is that it takes no account of a person’s internal state. This leads to one of the most questioned aspects of his thesis – being the transfer that produces the process of animal learning within the human.

Edwin Locke’s theory of Goal Setting (1968) explains cognitive motivation, understood as behaviour that is guided or directed by a mental representation (cognition) of the future. It suggests that people actively seek to achieve goals and objectives, since this gives meaning to their existence and orientates their behaviour. According to this theory, goals are an important motivational tool. Its impact has been so powerful in the field of work that it has generated a new and extensively used management model, known as management by objectives.

And lastly we come to Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory (1964) which is based on the assumption that we act seeking to maximise expected rewards. This turns our expectations of output and reward into the determining elements of motivation. In other words, the degree of motivation to perform an action is a function of the certainty that this action will allow us to achieve the desired outcome and of the value that is attributed to the result of this effort. Consequently, the greater the expectancy of probability and value of result, the greater the effort made.

Hence an historical survey of motivational impulses will reveal, among other things, reinforcement and rewards, needs, goals and expectations. This will inevitably lead to the following question: what are the drivers that really determine our motivation for innovation? What are the factors that turn motivation into passion? In this area, we must concentrate on expectations, in particular.

1.2. Motivational Expectations

The origin of Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory (1964) is the work of Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949), beyond a doubt one of the main researchers the US has produced in the study of behaviour. This being the case, we shall dedicate a few lines in this section to one of his major sources of inspiration.

Thorndike is particularly well-known for the experiments he performed using reward chambers (maze boxes, later Skinner boxes) where he analysed the strategies adopted by various species to solve problems. He observed that when an animal performed an action by chance, such as pressing a lever, and it was accompanied by a pleasant reward for the creature, such as getting out of the cage and a treat, the behaviour was repeated.

Thanks to this observation, in 1911 he was able to frame his famous Law of Effect, “Of the various responses which are available in the same situation and under the same conditions, those responses which are accompanied or immediately followed by the animal’s satisfaction will remain more firmly connected with the situation, such that when this takes place again, the said responses will have a greater likelihood of occurring; those responses which are accompanied or immediately followed by an unpleasant feeling for the animal, all other conditions remaining constant, will have weakened its connections with the said situation, such that when this situation is repeated, the said responses will have a lower likelihood of occurring. The greater the satisfaction or the discomfort, the greater will be the reinforcement of the union.” In short, he had scientifically demonstrated the power of reward.

This theory has been extensively and thoroughly applied in a number of fields, including business, where researchers following Victor Vroom have developed their own theories, seeking a universal formula for motivation. This has not yet been found, but thanks to these researchers’ efforts, we come a little closer every day to understanding its operating mechanisms.

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory postulates that the degree of motivation to perform a given action is the result of the interaction of two elements: expectancy that if it’s performed it will be rewarded, and the value attributed to the desired reward. Extrapolating this to Thorndike’s theory, it would represent the relationship between the lever and the door opening.

In more concrete terms, motivation depends initially on the causal relationship between the effort that must be made and the result that we hope to achieve. This element is of a cognitive nature, reflecting the subjective perception (or conviction) that a real link exists between them. These expectancies are formed for the most part as a result of our own previous experience and those of others.

As an example, what would your reaction be if the company “asks” you to make an extraordinary effort because without that effort they won’t achieve the commercial results they set as their quarterly goal?

Suppose this quarter that extraordinary effort has been made to sell projects, but the market was not receptive. The commercial proposal didn’t seem to “take” – the product wasn’t well received. You would think you couldn’t do anything about it. In other words, your result expectancy would be close to zero.

Are you going to make that extraordinary effort? Perhaps you’d make one last try (everything for the cause), but with little hope. In fact, even if you did it, you’d certainly not place much expectancy on your effort, and this would not go unnoticed by the customer, dooming the outcome.

The second element, the value of the result (also known as valence), refers to the valuation each one makes about what is hoped to be achieved. It covers the intensity of individual attraction felt regarding a given result. This is a subjective force that is conditioned by the degree to which it satisfies desires or needs. Kurt Zadek Lewin (1890-1947), by whom Vroom was inspired while developing his concept, explained it in his theory of human personality. He proposed a new reading and explanation for behaviour by applying the laws of contemporary physics, more specifically in the field of force. As a result, for Lewin (1935), “the valence of an object usually derives from the fact that the goal is a means to the satisfaction of a need, or has indirectly something to do with the satisfaction of a need”.

Now imagine that you are being offered an exotic holiday (you can choose the destination) with your partner. Will you make the same effort? Will you be equally motivated? The likelihood is that you’d find a last bit of strength where you thought none was left, and put your shoulder to the wheel. You will surely come up with something.

Let’s give our imagination free rein. What would happen if they told you that if you succeeded they would give you the promotion you’d wanted for so long? Suppose that this promotion does not just mean recognition and greater power (for those who want it), but comes with a delicious rise in salary What would your reaction be? Would you sweat blood? I bet you would, but the effort wouldn’t end there. You’d give it absolutely everything you had.

In brief, motivation for a given action is determined by the expectancy that the effort will be of use, and that there is a value for each of us in the result.

Why does it happen? The answer is endorphins.

These hormones have a crucial part to play in how we feel every moment of every day. Once secreted, they act as natural analgesics and intoxicants, making a profound effect on happiness. The effect is similar to that of morphine, but much more powerful. Nor do they cause the damage that narcotics do, since they are a substance generated by your own body. Coming back to Victor Vroom’s theory, expectancies generate endorphins and they motivate us.

Having come thus far, it is important to add a critical hint . What motivates us is not directly expectancy but rather the emotions they generate. In other words, for the same expectancy, if the emotional effect is different, the motivation will also change.

Suppose the company announces a promotion plus a 50 per cent salary rise to the person who wins the “Idea of the Year” competition. Will you be motivated? If you wish to remain in your comfort zone, will you be attracted by the idea of winning? It could be that even thinking about the possibility makes you anxious; even so, the more ambitious spirits will feel very happy at the idea of possible victory. So the same reward motivates and demotivates, depending on the individual’s internal state and as a function of the emotions he or she is capable of feeling. This means that managing expectancies cannot remain at a superficial level, with probability or value; the emotional effect must be factored in (and managed).

Proving the Expectancy Theory has run into a number of methodological difficulties which have shown that it must be handled with care. Because it was successfully applied in a number of research programmes, there have been no shortage of critics questioning its messages. Nevertheless, rather than totally invalidating the theory, what’s been achieved is a validation for those situations where we can clearly perceive the connection between effort and outcome. This means that the theory appears rather idealistic in some situations, throwing light on how to motivate staff which then leads to deliberate efforts to buttress the link between effort and reward.

Figure 10.2 Motivational Expectancies

How does this affect the field of innovation? Our level of motivation is the result of emotions generated by hopes that we will be successful if we make the effort, and, of course, our assessment that this will be of value.

Before concluding this section I want to comment about the initiatives found in Germany and China in this area. In Germany, the Law on Employee Inventions recognizes the right to receive compensation for workplace innovations. But it is China that has led in the paradigm change field, with patent legislation which gives employees a (reasonable) reward of two per cent of the profit generated by the application of the patent and 10 per cent of the licences. Would we be equally motivated to innovate if such a law applied in our country? Whatever the situation, be it growth or crisis, the answer is obvious – the application of the law would establish a “before and after” situation.

2. Innova 3DX for Motivation

Motivational expectancies normally generate around 20 per cent of innovative behaviour in both genders, which means they play a crucial role in management. I want to draw attention to the rather low score it receives in surveys: low expectancies on results and low valuation as regards reward. I’ve observed this in large corporation and in SMEs, in public and private sectors.

Bad news? On the contrary, these results turn the two ingredients of this theory into an effective lever for stimulating innovative behaviour.

What can you do if your teams feel incapable of innovation? What can you do if, to the contrary, the problem is that people already see that it may be a waste of time? Worse still, what can be done if past experiences lead people to think that the only person to profit by innovation is the boss? Or some much “smarter” work colleague?

A satisfactory communication policy and some clear recognition and reward mechanisms could lead to a 180 degree turnaround in a very short time, but it could also help consolidate a change that could persist as part of the strategy. Every business has to fine-tune its levers and define its own operational pathways, but after many years of research, I find myself in no doubt that for a great many people this will be their most reliable and profitable action.

Figure 10.3 Motivational Expectancies Test

To measure expectancies we have taken ten items worked out on the basis of the contributions of Smith, et al. (2008):

Instructions: score your opinion on each statement from 0 – 10, with 0 the lowest score and 10 the highest. You may use decimals if you wish.

Expectancies of probability
1.	I am capable of innovation.	— — , —
2.	Everybody is capable of innovation.	— — , —
3.	I find it easy to innovate.	— — , —
4.	It is possible to innovate in my company.	— — , —
5.	It’s easy to innovate in my company.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —
Expectations of value
1.	Innovative effort is quickly rewarded.	— — , —
2.	It’s worth the trouble to innovate.	— — , —
3.	Innovation can help me advance on a personal level.	— — , —
4.	Innovation can help me advance on a professional level.	— — , —
5.	Innovation is profitable for the innovator.	— — , —
Average score		— — , —

Result: from 0 – 3.5 (inclusive) very low, from 3.5 – 5 (inclusive) low, from 5 – 6.5 (inclusive) adequate, from 6.5 – 10 (inclusive) very high.

Figure 10.4 Motivational Expectancies Quadrant

In the fourth quadrant both expectations act as engines driving subjects towards innovation, so they behave as innovation drivers.

In the other quadrants, however, expectancies act as “paralysing brakes”. In these cases the creative impulse is in danger of being extinguished or of simply never appearing again. If this is your case or that of your team or business … don’t waste a second. This is the place to start effecting change.

3. Insight Management and Motivation

Motivation is something that arises from inside or outside. If it’s your job to motivate others, then you should take these lines to heart, because the fate of your team is in your hands. If, however, other people take it upon themselves to motivate you, then don’t just relax, check on how to maintain your own intrinsic motivation so as not to run out of steam halfway up the mountain.

When you climb that mountain, you want to give the ground a good thump while you advance – go on, make it and your own body shake. This is not a metaphor – stamp on the ground, the piano, the ball, move your hips, dance, vibrate, resound, stay alive with intensity and passion, with rhythm, with love and hate if you have to, as long as it’s vibrant and motivated. My initial approach to the subject is therefore bioenergetic. If your body doesn’t produce adrenalin and endorphins – if you’re not creating your own drugs, you’ll become disheartened and unable to face the big challenges because your body will simply not respond.

Then be very careful about where you place your energy, because it’s limited. If you commit yourself to a project, don’t bother planning escape routes because you’ll lose the strength you need to tackle what you’re actually doing. Carefully take aim and fire at the desired bull’s-eye. If you’re unable to commit yourself, you’ll miss. If you need the job although you don’t believe in it, work out the motivations that you need: money, social recognition, your partner’s or your parents’ or children’s respect. Whatever you do, don’t stay at home getting depressed, etc. Do whatever it takes – but do it in stages. There’s nothing worse than swimming in the ocean without knowing if you’ll ever make it to a beach where you can rest. You could drown.

A businessman consulted me on a matter that had to do with his wife. He believed their relationship was in crisis, while what was really happening was that he was competing for a promotion and had lost his motivation. He was so exhausted by the tremendous and prolonged effort that he had become careless about himself and had been neglecting his wife. He was in urgent need of a dream, a way out of his boring life – some kind of adventure, something illicit and pleasurable. In his case there was no need to plunge into a long course of therapy; a simple sheet of paper with concrete daily and weekly study goals, and times for review and rest resulted in this man not only getting his breath back, and his energy, but he passed the test, re-established his relationship with his wife and there was no need for him to go seeking a lover.

If you need to trick yourself to motivate yourself and your people, do it. There’s a well-known folktale about a trickster shaman. The man arrives in a village in serious need of food, and having no money, calls on the children of the village to help him make a stew out of stones. The children, fascinated by the trickster’s magic, hurry to do what he wants them to, to see this magic, and he in turn lights a fire and places a pot full of water on it to boil. He then takes out some “magic” stones he has in his bag and puts them into the water. The children watch in amazement as it boils, and the man remarks that the stew would be much richer if they put something in it to give it a little flavour. The children run to their homes and each one brings something back: potatoes, sausage, ham, turnip greens, etc. They’re all fascinated by the magic that they’re all helping to create. Very soon the stew’s ready and they all share it, laughing, feeling like fellow conspirators, united, happy, and with full bellies. The shaman, who then saves the stones for the next occasion, had played a trick on them – and succeeded not only in getting a free meal, but also in imparting a magical experience to the children that was redolent of wit and passion.

There are many theories about motivation, there are numerous pathways and no particular model will guarantee success. This means that you have to advance in your own way. What motivated you once may no longer work and what is good for one person might be no good for somebody else. Finding out how other people motivate themselves may provide a hint, but each individual has to find their own way, and this will often include a mixture of success, expectations, emotions, supports and possibly other factors.

The theory of expectations is of special importance for one reason: awareness. An expectation improvement system is of no use if the person seeking motivation is not aware of what it implies for them, or what they might win or lose. It’s one thing to place a prize on the table, quite another to put a value on that prize. If you really don’t understand the repercussions your action will have, you aren’t really taking part. Look at it from the opposite angle: if we all understood the repercussions of emitting pollution all over the planet and perpetuating poverty in the world, the motivation for our actions to change that would be of the highest order. But if we aren’t aware, our motivation is abstract and fades like smoke from the burning Amazon forest.

In the business world the most powerful motivation can very often be a mental image, an expectation that helps, and then generates the desire to achieve it: a bonus, a prize holiday which you’ve set your heart on, some evidence of recognition, etc. In all these cases, dangling the carrot in front of the hungry donkey works, but if the donkey isn’t hungry, it doesn’t.

Coming back to a holistic viewpoint, although the mental and the emotional go hand-in-hand, I like to feel that vibration rise from below and spread throughout the entire body. I see it as much more powerful and lasting. The mental image is also stimulating, but I forget, I can easily be distracted by something else, taking it as normal, ceasing to assign value to it. I can even become demotivated if the extraordinary prize vanishes. That’s why I prefer to reassess emotion as energy, movement and direction, so that I can take advantage of it as a leader or as an individual.

Passion is the pulse that not only allows you to be alive, but gives you the desire to keep on battling, developing and creating. Without it, there is nothing, since you cease to live in the present then, and your gaze towards the future is lost. Having hope and heightened emotion for a project generates energy that feeds back into work, nourishing and teaching you. Passion is contagious, as is lethargy.

Unfortunately, lethargy and envy are powerful allies against passion and innovation. If you have to put up with a reasonable period of time stuck in the desert, where you feel alone, not just because nobody is backing you, but because they’re sapping your strength and motivation, cling to impeccability, a profound and powerful concept much appreciated by the shamans and reflected in the works of Carlos Castaneda, the well-known Mexican healer Pachita and others. To boost and maintain motivation it’s important to be impeccable in important areas such as your love of work or of a job well done, and to work without needing to be appreciated by others. This attitude is most obvious because of its absence in the modern world, where customers and employees are burnt like forests are burnt, having childishly believed that all those resources were infinite.

When I was a child, I got a great lesson from reading Michael Ende’s novel Momo. One of the characters was a sweeper, who explained to the girl, Momo, that he would carefully sweep the great square of the city every day from early morning, even though it was huge and the result wouldn’t last, and even though there would be no round of applause for him at the end. He did his job by ensuring that each flagstone, one by one, was immaculate, never looking to see how many he had left to do, and so he went home happy when he had finished. I still feel that it’s an admirable attitude and the best way for each of us to do our own particular job.

Let’s go back to emotion-movement (they come from the same root): emotion provides or deploys a quantity of energy that is directed at an objective, which may or may not be in line with a mental goal, so aligning ourselves is very important. The relationship between emotion and motivation is two-directional, carrying one and the other and vice versa.

In terms of motivation, rivers of ink have been wasted on the theme of passion and it’s obvious why. If I feel passion for something, I will vibrate, I will want it to express itself and I will be occupied and involved with it from head to toe, head over heels in fact, as those in love put it.

If you go for crazy love, then go for it in your own way, vibrating, hoping, expecting and even suffering as part of the journey. If you do things the way others want you to, you’re wasting your life. No passion will come from that. Forget your parents, boss, grandfather, teacher, therapist and spiritual confessor.

Now, let’s take one more step forward and then we’ll undertake a brief review of the other emotions that also inject weight and motion, causing commotion. The first thing we have to take into account is which emotions, and in which direction their energy and intensity are moving:

In the case of fear, you have to escape what causes it. Fear that is sustained over time saps vital energy, happiness and mental clarity. People who are burdened by fear are blocked and become paranoid and can behave very aggressively. Do you work harder when you’re afraid you might be sacked? It depends – you don’t produce more, since part of your productive energy is needed to assess the threat and work out what to do if they do fire you. A person who is not afraid can focus their energy on the job.

Of course, there is another extreme: the person who is completely fearless and knows that whatever they do won’t lead to repercussions can also lack motivation. I’m not suggesting a whip, but I do recommend a system of reasonable rewards and punishments. Activation in the creative process is fundamental, but if it turns into paralysing fear, then that’s not good. If the threat moves you towards generating ideas then that is good.

Rage can help destroy in order to then create, although suppressing anger can lead to serious depression. However it can also help, if well focused, to produce a greater yield, like winning a tennis final in the fifth hour of the game. As far as creativity is concerned, rage is usually too powerful, like a runaway horse, breaking and knocking down things that aren’t any use in order to create space. Kind of like a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Sadness leaches away the energy of movement, but like autumn it can be an invitation to plunge deep into oneself, meditate and have some insights. Don’t underestimate it, it is a hugely productive emotion if you take advantage of this emotional “water” to go with the flow, and develop fresh ideas with a cooler head. It can be essential for working at a delicate level, having less fire.

Happiness is vital not only at the social level, since it is contagious, but also for you to maintain a sustainable career. It helps you ride a wave and keep on enjoying it. Disinterested happiness, Buddhist happiness, would have more to do with serene spiritual fulfilment, which is absolutely essential for certain kinds of delicate and refined jobs. Along with this comes confidence, which is also important, because a suspicious person is reticent, reserved, distant and unable to become deeply involved in either a project or relationships. If I suspect my boss is going to steal my idea, I don’t even bother to work it out.

Let’s include some other phenomena that are interesting from the movement and motivation angle:

Curiosity is valuable as an aspect of proactive, forward, exploratory movement, when you search with your eyes wide open. There is no doubt that most inventions have been the result of adventurous curiosity.

Disgust is visceral, spontaneous and obviously generates repulsion, rejection and withdrawal from contact. It is essential to recognize it in order not to waste time with something that won’t work. I saw this very clearly with a vegan client, a chef who had begun to work in a non-vegan restaurant. Although she tried very hard to cook meat, the result was a disaster. She was sacked, to her full agreement because she, too, had realized the mission was impossible.

Surprise implies that you should check on a movement that may have been going in the right direction and has now been aborted. It may even be an opportunity to see reality as it really is. If you can’t see any difference between yesterday and today, it’s because you don’t see at all.

To summarise, no emotion is bad, because motion is always energy in motion, and if channelled effectively is very useful. It is important to be aware of emotion, because if it is badly channelled or denied it will not only lead to creative blocks in you and your team, but will match what traditional Chinese medicine and even our own folk wisdom says: anger affects the liver, unhappiness affects the pancreas, sadness the lungs, obsession the head, etc.

NB: I am aware of the fact that this latter part of the chapter is not for everybody, and not everyone will understand its importance. You still need a great deal of emotional intelligence to know what is happening to you, and to manage it well, but it is vital that everyone work on it, particularly those who aim to take the lead in innovative/creative processes. A couple of simple examples: if you don’t manage your anger well, you will literally burn your creative teams with your verbal and even physical outrages.

And finally, to motivate yourself it is crucial to vibrate, and to achieve this I once again invoke the principles of non-intervention and non-judgement: let each individual give free rein to their passion where it is creative and where they prefer. Neither judge nor intervene when it comes to your own movement or that of others. Remember the film, Billy Elliot, about the boy who wanted to dance classical ballet in a depressed industrial city, this is a true example of passion shining through.