Sources of motivation

What motivates us to act, or not to act?

What guides our choices?

What compels us to behave in particular ways?

Without delving too deeply into the psychological realm, the simple suggestion is that we are motivated by whatever it is that makes sense to us.

Sure - what makes sense to us can be entirely affected by our limited worldview, our biases, the boundaries of our rational mind... and obviously, our emotions.

But how we make sense of things in our own particular way, far outweighs any rational evidence that may suggest that what we believe, isn't actually true.

What's true for us, is the truth in our own minds.

You can tell a smoker that smoking kills and show them thousands of bits of information that prove the point, but if continuing to smoke still makes sense to the smoker...then smoking is what they will continue to choose to do.

The only thing that will change their behaviour, and their motivation to do so, is for them to make sense of smoking differently.

Their perspective on smoking will need to shift.

Weakening and strengthening simultaneously

Reducing the motivation to smoke comes if the value of smoking is weakened and the relationship to a more 'beneficial alternate activity' (like running marathons) is strengthened.

When the power of an action, or outcome (as well as the substitutes that is connected to it as an alternative) is weakened (and strengthened), then behavioural change happens.

Weakening the one without simultaneously strengthening the other is less effective.

The point here is that what make sense to us holds more power than what we know.

If you want to strategically change the future of an organisation its not enough to just know why the change is important, the change rather needs to make sense to everyone.