If Al Gore is correct then understanding “Intrinsic Motivators” maybe the way to help all of us get people more engaged with solving our Climate and Biodiversity Issues.
Hello and Welcome to how my brain works the essays in this section are as much about my journey as it is about your journey in becoming and understanding what it means to create and much more greener and social cohesive world. My study in this area started you could argue at the age of 2 when I lost my hearing due to measles – twice In fact my hearing disability wqs not regarded and acknowledge till I was twenty-seven.
We gave all felt like the picture to your left at one time or another when it comes to trying to understand the complex issues that affect us in regards our Planets issues that we have to change and adapt to.
“I just want to keep honing the thing that I’ve got, making it better & better that’s all. That’s the only ambition I feel. I just want to be very good at what I do … to keep the standard very high,& to also remain dangerous” ref – Billy Connelly
It’s a form of humour that bites and creates a form of awareness. The Goons inspiration is a way that is not direct, take the drawing by Spike Milligan (left), it says a lot about our worlds issues. My study in to intrinsic motivators is tempered with how absurdist humour can send a message that is both cutting but also in a way that we can engage with.
If you want to get people to culturally engage you need to understand the basic’s of our intrinsic motivators with some grit mixed in. Once you have that basic understanding you understand why absurdist humour can cut a swath in helping people get involved.
Lets delve into world of developing Intrinsic Motivators as a way to get a grasp of how we go about solving our Planets issues.
At the top of the page we have described how these intrinsic human motivators works when it comes to how humans develop purpose and drive in creating real solutions to the problems that face us. These motivators combine
How we develop our Intrinsic Motivators to solve really difficult problems like our Planetary issues
The core to achieving this or anything meaningful lies in the innate talents/abilities we all have. Everyone of us has a talent or ability in some form or another we just need to find it. Once you have found it you need to set about developing it. This begs the question of how do we define the idea of talent. We tend defined talent as “How quickly your abilities improve when you invest effort”. To answer this you need to understand what ‘effort’ actually is.
The true is that when you enjoy doing something you invest more time and effort than usual. It stands to reason that the more effort you put into something the better the end result. It’s an easy assumption to make that the more hard graft/effort you apply, results in better creations. Well not really, at FROG this way of think and working we reckon is pointless, your need to understand the actual ‘quality of the effort’ you put in. The idea of hard graft/effort needs to be better defined to understand how we progress skills and what we create.
Many peoples idea of being gritty can be defined as mindlessly never giving in and grafting. There is however one vital bit left out of our understanding of this concept of hard work and grafting. Some of you may have worked it out. In the every form of hard graft, effort or hard work lies something we call “Effective Graft”.
Effective Graft……
………works on the premise of constantly working at ironing out those imperfections in your skills. The first part of developing effective graft is called CORRECT EFFORT, and believe us this is not easy, its a very hard thing to do over a long period of time. Initially Correct effort is about targeting how you improve your skills and abilities. To work this way you are improving your focus and learning the skills you need to do this. A simple equation illustrates the point.
Talent or Ability x Correct Effort
……………………….= Enhanced Skills/Abilities
You need to target the right kind of effort to improve. By develop a better targeted focus in the way you work to improve. The previous equation illustrates the point well. The more time you spend working this way the more you will enhance your skills. However it’s pointless spending masses of time just becoming skilful, if you can’t develop or create something meaningful in your life and work, what’s the point of all that effort and hard work.
This Leads to “Above Average Achievement”
This is where passion comes in – that overwhelming desire to want to create something profound and be good at what you do. We have to at this stage re-define the idea of effort again. Before we used it to enhance our skills and focus, now we need to applied it in a different way, in regards what we create or make or do for that matter. So ‘Correct Effort’ is re-defined here in terms of how we solve problems and what we produce. The next equation defines this.
Enhanced Skills/Abilities x Correct Effort
……………………...= Above Average Achievement
You may have heard of the ten thousand hour rule which says that ten thousand hours is the required time needed to become an expert in something. It’s true to a point but it is only true if those hours that are applied correctly based on what we have defined above. An easy way to think about this is that if you graft mindlessly at what you a good at you are not working in the areas you are weak in.
Part of your 10,000 hours needs to have areas you are weak in. Working and learning this way depletes willpower and drains motivation. This is why passion becomes so important in what we do. Passion drives motivation and motivation drives us to put the hard hours of correct effort in. Loving what you do has to be at the core of doing what we learn. If you like running you will get stronger and fitter, the same applies for your mind.
Finally we need to add a bit more about “Grit’ but in more of a social context.
Before we finish this section we need to have a little chat of where grit comes in. We have spoken before how proper grit works in terms of effective graft. Our intrinsic motivators drive everything in terms of solving problems. Grit is just the final marker when it comes to solving problems we care about.
The reason humans are so successful is that they can come together with different view points, rip up and combine divergent concepts and come up with real solutions. Grit is not just tied to us personally we all need to learn how to get support from others, as well as being able to work in teams. So lets us finally look at how everything that has got before works in developing social cohesion when it comes to solving problems and developing solutions.
Intrinsic Motivators in Human Social Group Ways
Humans are ultra hive beings. We live in a world where we rely on others within our social groups. Just remember no one has ever succeeded alone, ever. Newton knew that what he achieve was because he had stood on the shoulder of giants. Richard Branson’s autobiography, the first chapter there zero I’s but 27 We’s. There were forty patents about mapping the human genome. The invented the telephone well there’s Antonio Meucci, Elisha Gray, or Dr Bell.
Need we go on. Everybody needs somebody. Human success has always been based on the work of others to varying degrees. Look at the development of where the earth sits in the cosmos. It start with Aristotle, Ptolemy or Aristarchus Samos but future research by the luminaries like Nicolaus Copernicus: Galileo Galilei: William Herschel: Henrietta Leavitt: and Edwin Hubble.
The reason we have gone into this quite heavily is because its important. If we are to solve all our planetary issues. Everyone needs to be engaged in creating options and developing real possibilities. This final section is about creating teams and getting those in the team to be able to work together and to create structure that allow divergent teams to link and work together.
Pixar Brain Trust Concept.
How do you criticise effectively with out causing offenceAt Commonground we want to develop something along the links of a Brain Trust concept.
Ten Effective Habits to develop in the ways are create at work & play!
If you are going to improve your abilities, you need to develop some effective work habits. Developing these habits is vital if you want to succeed. Remember Ben Franklin’s quote ‘talent is silver in a mine’. Here are some of the skills and attitudes that we have found help in developing good habits when you work, play and create.
Waking the sleeper is much harder than you MAY think!
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