Motivation – Gabriel Catalano®

Top Six Components of a Creative Climate | innovationmanagement.se

Are you thinking about ways to transform your workplace into an environment more conducive to innovation? This article takes a closer look at six components of creative climates that have shown to be significant at facilitating creativity according to new research.

This article will continue investigating creative climates with the goal of identifying the most substantial components that facilitates creativity.

What is a creative climate?

A climate can be seen as various aspects of the psychological atmosphere in a team and the surrounding organizational environment. The climate often conveys expectations about which behaviors and attitudes that are acceptable. In the creativity research field there has been many attempts to conceptualize the idea of a ‘creative’ climate – i.e. such a climate that facilitates outcomes that are creative. Examples of such conceptualizations are the Team Climate Inventory by Anderson & West (1996), the Creative Climate Questionnaire by Ekvall (1996) and the KEYS by Amabile et al. (1996).

Many components of a creative climate have been proposed during the years. Some examples are the degree of individual freedom, psychological safety, support and positive relationships among team members, vision provided by supervisors, creative encouragement, mission clarity, available resources, and even joy (Denti, 2011).

The search for significant components of a creative climate

For this article I want to highlight six components of a creative climate that have been shown to be among the most salient in predicting creative and innovative outcomes. To identify these components, I have scrutinized two recent meta-analytic studies on factors that influence creativity and innovation (Hülsheger, Anderson & Salgado, 2009, and Hunter, Bedell & Mumford, 2007). Meta analytic studies have the best ability to detect effects across multiple settings since they combine the results from a large amount of studies¹. The factors are presented in no particular order… Continuar leyendo «Top Six Components of a Creative Climate | innovationmanagement.se»

Personalize Learning Newsletter – Motivation, Engagement, and Voice

See on Scoop.it – Gabriel Catalano human being | #INperfeccion® a way to find new insight & perspectives

This has been a very busy fall with many requests for our process to build sustainable personalized learning environments for the Race to the Top – District proposals. On top of that, we are leading webinars, participating in panels, speaking in keynote addresses, doing workshops, creating eCourses, setting up Communities of Practice (CoP), interviewing thought leaders, and important research on motivation, engagement, and voice. This means we continue to create new resources, refine the process, and personalize our services to meet your needs. Continuar leyendo «Personalize Learning Newsletter – Motivation, Engagement, and Voice»

The Power of Praise: ‘Thank You’ Goes a Long Way | Inc.com

Kathleen Kim | Inc.com staff
Thanks INC!

New research reveals something pretty obvious. Thanking and rewarding employees can give your business a boost.
Don’t hold off until annual performance reviews to praise stellar employees. A simple “thank you” here and there can boost efficiency and even help your business make more money.

According to new research (and, perhaps, the laws of common sense) companies that excel at employee recognition are 12 times more likely to generate strong business results than those that do not.

In companies focused on rewarding their workers, employee engagement, productivity and customer service were about 14% better than in those that skimp on recognition, the study found.

The study was conducted by advisory services firm Bersin & Associates President and CEO Josh Bersin wrote recently that “high-recognition culture” companies share three common traits:

First, they build focused recognition programs which collect “thank you’s” and “feedback” from peers, not just managers. Second, they directly tie recognition to business goals and company values, so recognition reinforces strategy. Third, they give employees open and transparent access to the program – so everyone can see who is being recognized and anyone can recognize another.

But to really praise like a pro, start here:

Be specific and know your people
Consider the delivery
Get everyone involved

Continuar leyendo «The Power of Praise: ‘Thank You’ Goes a Long Way | Inc.com»

Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money

Written by Mansur Hasib

As IT managers and leaders, it is our job to foster the professional growth of everyone who works on our team. If we do not do this we are failing as leaders.

I have had many discussions on the topic of training with both employees and managers. Many IT managers are afraid that certifications will make their employees more marketable and allow them to find better opportunities. Employees are frustrated that their managers do not allow them to grow and so eventually they leave to find better opportunities to learn and to grow professionally.

When I was negotiating my budget as a CIO, I asked for and received $2,000 per year for every employee that could only be used for travel or training. It required the consultation of supervisors and could be used for a conference or even a certification. Since some training is more expensive, employees were allowed to trade and give someone their training dollars for one year so they could get it back from the recipient in a subsequent year. At times I was able to recruit someone simply because I had this guaranteed annual training benefit.

Continuar leyendo «Retaining Great Employees: It’s Not About the Money»

10 Ideas To Keep Your Social Team Motivated

Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

Working with teams on countless social marketing and PR projects internally, with clients and even random ideas purely for fun has given me an appreciation for keeping everyone motivated and interested in what they’re doing. In fact it’s tough for me to recall an ultra-successful project that occurred in a situation without a majority of the team motivated and passionate about what they were working on.

You could have a truly brilliant group but if they aren’t motivated, so what? They aren’t going to be in the right mindset to win. In social marketing and PR this is especially important because everything is going to be shared publicly. And keeping the motivation going is critical because you’re no longer working in bursts, but rather over a continuum long-term.

With that in mind, following are 10 ideas specifically for social projects to keep your team motivated and interested:

1. Develop feedback mechanisms (and actually use them)

A lot of companies talk about providing feedback to their team on social participation. Many will actually start out by doing this – but it’s something I commonly see slide as time goes on. This is a sad state of affairs, because closing the loop by providing feedback is always a motivator for those who take pride in their work.

I’ve done this with teams I’ve worked with even in situations it’s not my domain because I’ve seen the work produced by those who both anticipate and receive the right kind of feedback. Simply put, it’s higher quality. Research by social scientists Dan Ariely andDaniel Pink support this too. Both qualitative and quantitative feedback should be given to motivate all different personalities.

2. Only hire new team members that are a fit culturally

When growing a social team, remember that they don’t just work together internally, but also interact publicly and coordinate efforts to build a community. The wrong person on a social team could not only be a waste a resources, it could hurt the motivation of everyone. To solve this involve the entire group in the hiring process to allow for a collective decision.

A study by the University of Washington: Rotten To The Core: How Workplace ‘Bad Apples’ Spoil Barrels Of Good Employees published in brief at Science Daily reinforces the importance of keeping your organization made up of those who fit together:

Look around any organization and chances are you’ll be able to find at least one person whose negative behavior affects the rest of the group to varying degrees. So much so, say two University of Washington researchers, that these “bad apples” are like a virus to their teams, and can upset or spoil the whole apple cart.

…Felps and Mitchell define negative people as those who don’t do their fair share of the work, who are chronically unhappy and emotionally unstable, or who bully or attack others. They found that a single “toxic” or negative team member can be the catalyst for downward spirals in organizations. In a follow-up study, the researchers found the vast majority of the people they surveyed could identify at least one “bad apple” that had produced organizational dysfunction.

3. Create a 20 percent time

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a 20% time, it’s a simple concept popularized by Google:

The 20 percent time is a well-known part of our philosophy at Google, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren’t necessarily in our job descriptions. You can use the time to develop something new, or if you see something that’s broken, you can use the time to fix it.

If you have the right social marketing team they are going to be highly interested inexperimenting. In fact, they are already going to be doing this personally. To provide the time to do this with others not only helps keep them motivated and thinking creatively, you may find some of the most successful work gets produced here.

Many have noted the benefits of 20% time for increasing innovation and Twitter similarlyfollowed suit this year. These companies need to keep their team members motivated to continue to dominate the market. Your company is not so different – at least, if you want to attract motivated team members and maintain their spirit long-term.

4. Allow team members to keep their own presence …. Continuar leyendo «10 Ideas To Keep Your Social Team Motivated»

The Thinking Mindset vs. The Doing Mindset: Pick One (And Only One)

by Art Markman | http://99u.com

Ilustration: Oscar Ramos Orozco

You’ll find that some days, the ideas come fast and furious. The days when you just want to sit at your desk, stare up at the sky and just let your mind wander.Other days, though, you really want to get moving. You’re antsy and you can’t really focus on any one thought. Instead, you are most efficient if you are getting things done.

It is no coincidence that the motivation to think and the motivation to act seem to strike us at different times. Research by psychologists Arie Kruglanski, Tory Higgins, and their colleagues suggests that we have two complementary motivational systems: the «thinking» system and the «doing» system – and we’re generally only capable of using one at a time.Think about how you best generate new ideas. Often, you «brainstorm» or try to come up with as many ideas as possible. That is called diverging and requires our thinking system. At other times, you need to evaluate those ideas and figure out which ones are best. That is called converging, and it requires the activation of the doing system.

We have a ‘thinking’ system and a ‘doing’ system – and we’re generally only capable of using one at a time.

Managing your mindset can help you optimize your thinking when you are trying to be creative. Here are a few suggestions for influencing your motivational state. These suggestions can be effective either for you as an individual or when you are working in a group.Get some distance.

Physical and mental distance influence the way you think about things. When you are near to something, you think about it specifically, and you focus on the ways that you can interact with it. Being close to your work engages the doing system. When you are far from it, you think about it more conceptually. Distance engages the thinking system.

Your workplace environment is strongly associated with getting things done. In order to engage a thinking mindset, spend time working in another place. Change your environment, and you will change the way you think.

Stand up and move.

The modern workplace revolves around sitting. Most people have a primary workspace that involves a chair in front of a desk or table. This posture is great, because it allows us to work for long periods of time without causing bodily fatigue.

Change your environment, and you will change the way you think.

Additionally, the seated posture does not support many complex actions, so it reinforces the activation of a thinking mindset, especially thanks to years of schooling.

If you need to jumpstart your doing motivation, get moving. Stand up. Walk around your workspace. Put your ideas on sheets of paper and physically separate them in your space. Walk over to each idea and evaluate it separately. By getting up and moving, you shift yourself from a mode of deliberation to one of selection. Continuar leyendo «The Thinking Mindset vs. The Doing Mindset: Pick One (And Only One)»

What motivates humans to collaborate? | 100open.com

I’ve alway been used to seeing Maslov’s hierarchy of needs as a 5 layer pyramid with ‘self actualisation’ at the top. There’s a lot in his 1943 theory that is relevant to why people would want to collaborate on a deep human motivational level. The need to belong and be accepted in the third level and the desire for the respect by others on the fourth level are two examples of why we are social in business as well as in life.

My nagging doubt about this model though was that the apex of human motivation is shown to be more selfish, concerned with fulfilling one’s own potential to the utmost.

Sure, winning is satisfying at the level of Esteem. Yes, fulfilling your personal potential, perhaps in your job or career, is Self Actualising. But what next? (Maslow said that needs must be satisfied in the given order. Aims and drive always shift up to the next needs level.)

So I was delighted to discover that Maslov in his original writing draws an interesting distinction here. “I have recently found it more and more useful to differentiate between two kinds of self-actualizing people, those who were clearly healthy, but with little or no experiences of transcendence, and those in whom transcendent experiencing was important and even central…”

These transcendence needs are defined by going beyond what you can become and embrace helping others to achieve self actualisation. This opens up the possibility of human motivation to collaborate at the highest level… Continuar leyendo «What motivates humans to collaborate? | 100open.com»

13 Desktop Wallpapers To Kickstart Your Creativity | by Behance Team

by Behance Team | http://99u.com

One of the first things people notice about our offices here atBehance are the giant, motivational quotes up on the walls. Ranging from Picasso to Charles Mingus, they serve as a daily reminder of our ethos of making ideas happen.

We decided it would be nice to share the love. Below find 15 desktop wallpapers to get you fired up to take action on your ideas. Each nugget of wisdom comes from a past 99U speaker.

(Speaking of, did we mention tickets for our 2013 99U Conference are on sale now?)

«It’s through mistakes that you actually grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.» -Paula Scher

[Download image] | [Tweet this quote]

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«There is no such thing as finishing or failing, it’s all about doing.» -Rilla Alexander

[Download image] | [Tweet this quote]

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«Track your small wins to motivate big accomplishments.» -Teresa Amabile

[Download image] | [Tweet this quote]
Continuar leyendo

Motivational Clips For Entrepreneurs: “At The End Of Pain Is Success” | POST DESTACADO

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.” Each week, we post a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs. Why? Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward. I hope these videos are a little juice. Cheers, Scott

http://walkercorporatelaw.com

by Scott Edward Walker

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

“If You Don’t Love It, You’re Going To Fail” (Via Steve Jobs)… Continuar leyendo «Motivational Clips For Entrepreneurs: “At The End Of Pain Is Success” | POST DESTACADO»

Need Some Great Advice? Ask Death

Decisions are the key.

Every moment of every day of your life, you are making decisions. How many of those decisions are based on the fact that you are a being who is not only going to die, but could die at any moment? For example…

If most people knew they were going to die tomorrow, or next week, or even in a year, they would probably focus on just a few things…

Spending time with their loved ones
Forgiving and seeking forgiveness
Taking actions that they feel would make the world a better place
Doing the things they most enjoy doing — DON’T IGNORE THIS ONE
Tying up loose ends
Careful planning to make every moment count
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you were living like this now?

Written by Sky Abelar - http://www.pickthebrain.com

Death is a subject that few are comfortable with. Yet, making death your best friend can enhance your life in ways you might not otherwise imagine.

One of the most effective practices recommended by traditional Toltec teachers, is called, “Using death as an adviser”. Deceased author of over ten books of Toltec wisdom, Carlos Castaneda said…

“Death is the only wise adviser that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, ‘I haven’t touched you yet….In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.” Continuar leyendo «Need Some Great Advice? Ask Death»

7 Steps To Motivate Yourself

If you want to achieve success and make things happen, then you probably know that you need to have the ability to motivate yourself. Everyone seeks to motivate himself to achieve success and prosperity, but many do not know how.

How do you motivate yourself?

To learn how to motivate yourself, follow the quick guide below:

1. Have a reason

One of the strongest motives to motivate yourself is that you have a reason. This reason will inspire you and make you do whatever it takes to challenge all of the obstacles, so you can achieve your goals. If your desire and reasons are normal, then you might get motivated temporarily. The strong desires that make you think and dwell on your goals are the strong motives that will keep you moving forward.

2. Have a great goal

Have a goal that you want to achieve. Having a great goal is crucial because it is very difficult to motivate yourself if you don’t have a specific goal that you want to accomplish.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/7-steps-to-motivate-yourself/

How do you motivate yourself?

To learn how to motivate yourself, follow the quick guide below:

1. Have a reason

2. Have a great goal

Have a goal that you want to achieve. Having a great goal is crucial because it is very difficult to motivate yourself if you don’t have a specific goal that you want to accomplish. Continuar leyendo «7 Steps To Motivate Yourself»

Re-Defining Your Path to Success

Why do so many people fall short of their goals, even when they actively prepare and plot out a course of action? The answer is surprisingly simple.

Our motivations are flawed.

Oh, we formulate our plans well enough. We envision the end results. We plan our steps out carefully. But there is one crucial element that we often forget. And that is our motivation. Or, more importantly, the fact that our individual motivations are based on words, and that these words have meanings.

This probably doesn’t surprise you. Of course words have meanings. There are entire dictionaries that prove that fact.

But I’m not talking about meanings in the literal sense. I’m talking about meanings in the personal sense. For many of us, words carry several layers of contextual meaning and association in addition to their literal meanings. And this little fact, hidden in plain sight, is often the thread that unravels many of our best-laid plans.

Written by Tom Johnson | http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/

Why do so many people fall short of their goals, even when they actively prepare and plot out a course of action? The answer is surprisingly simple.

Our motivations are flawed.

This probably doesn’t surprise you. Of course words have meanings. There are entire dictionaries that prove that fact.

5 Motivational Tips to Get You Through the Day

That help really makes a big difference.

So how did it go for my colleague?
He started by getting out of the office and taking a walk. He then sat down and made an action plan listing rewards for finished tasks. He knew he wanted to complete the goal and was going to do everything in his power to complete it.
He got back to work and after 3 hours of hard work had made a dozen great calls, lined up some potential customers but still not made a sale.
He felt he was slipping back into his apathy, so he called his wife. She talked to him, listened to him and spurred him on.

When they hung up he had renewed his energy and got back to work. 1 hour later he had made a close and his confidence came rushing back.

2 weeks later he was back on course and on his was to break his personal best.

by Daniel Wood

Photo Credit: The Pirata

Your motivation is what pushed you to succeed and determines to a large degree if you are going to succeed or fail. But even the most motivated person needs a little extra help sometimes.

When the going gets tough these 5 tips can help you turn the day around and get you back on track.

Getting out of a cold streak  I recall using these techniques with one of my salesmen; he was having a really bad week and was on the verge of just giving up, working just meant another rejection anyway.

At the beginning of the month we had set the goal that he was going to make two sales a week and agreed upon a very nice reward if he made it.

He was still motivated, as he really wanted the reward, but just couldn’t focus and get hungry about his work.

We went through these 5 tips (I will share the results with you below):

• Focus on Your Goals
Your motivation stands in direct relationship to how clear your goals are, they are the source of your motivation. When you feel down, focus on them, visualize them and think about how great it will be once you have completed them.

• Reward Yourself for Finishing Tasks
This is a great technique. Whenever you finish a task or complete a goal, give yourself a reward.
It can be a cup of coffee, a 10 minute break, a weekend away…. Anything that gets you motivated.
By doing this you train yourself to want to complete the goals and tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, you will work hard to complete your goals, get the reward and move on the next. Always remember though, make sure you do the job well, you don’t want to have to go back and redo the task you already thought was finished.

• Take a Short Walk
Sometimes you need a break, to clear your mind and get yourself back on track. Taking a walk is a great way to sort your thoughts and refocus.

• Remember That When You Are Done, You Are Done
By this I mean that once you have done everything you need to do during the day, you are finished and can go home. That gives me a burst of motivation every time the day starts to feel long, it is up to me to make it go quickly so I can relax.

• Call a Loved One for Inspiration
Sometimes we cannot do it alone. Make sure to find a friend or loved one who can help you when you need motivation, who you can call and who you know will tell you that you can do it and that they know you are great.

Continuar leyendo «5 Motivational Tips to Get You Through the Day»

Self-Motivating Through Creative Blocks

As designers, we need to be creative in order to be successful at our jobs.

Coming up with ideas and creative solutions to problems is what we do on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to do so.

Sometimes we get blocked creatively, and it seems like no matter how hard we try, we just can’t come up with a creative solution to anything.

The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do that can help you overcome a block in your creativity. First you’ll need to understand why you’re blocked, and then try some simple techniques to get over that blockage.

In this article, we’ll also cover a few ideas for finding motivation when your lack of desire to work is the root of your creativity problems.
Reasons for Creative Blockages

insomnia

Before we can overcome a creative block, it’s important to figure out what is causing it. Without knowing the root cause, we don’t really know the best methods for getting over a blockage. In most cases, blocks are caused by one of four things:

As designers, we need to be creative in order to be successful at our jobs.

Coming up with ideas and creative solutions to problems is what we do on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to do so.

Sometimes we get blocked creatively, and it seems like no matter how hard we try, we just can’t come up with a creative solution to anything.

In this article, we’ll also cover a few ideas for finding motivation when your lack of desire to work is the root of your creativity problems.

Reasons for Creative Blockages

Finish Your Masterpiece with Deliberate Goal Planning

tip
by Glen Stansberry

All artists want to create massive, powerful works to be remembered by. We have visions of our own «Sistine Chapel» that we want to tackle before we die. The problem with epic projects is that they’re often started, but rarely finished. This is precisely why we celebrate massive works: they don’t come along very often. The Sistine Chapel took four years of painting the most difficult form of fresco – buon fresco – on rickety scaffolding, while bending over backwards. (Even Michelangelo was suspicious that his enemies purposely gave the project such a massive scope just to see him fail.1)

Finishing masterpieces is daunting. Over time, motivation and desire fade unless we make deliberate strides toward our goals every single day. But getting into the mindset of being deliberate with our work is a paradigm shift. Being deliberate means that when we are working, we are always working on something with an end goal in mind.

Finishing masterpieces is daunting. Over time, motivation and desire fade.

When the Beatles started a recording session, they never knew what sounds they would produce in the studio. But they knew one thing: they wanted every recording to sound different than the previous. John Lennon said this about their process: “Each time we just want to do something different… Why should we ever want to go back? That would be soft.”

If establishing such a goal during the nascent stages of a project seems daunting, it needn’t be. Laying out your end game merely means being clear about what you’re trying to achieve with a given creative project. For Michelangelo, it was as specific as paint 5,000 square feet of the Sistine Chapel. For the Beatles, it was as broad as make a record that sounds like something completely new.

The important thing is to be clear about the goal. Once you have that, you can backfill the details and tasks needed to get there – and, most likely, revise them as you gather feedback and experience along the way. Here are a few ways to get started:

tip

by Glen Stansberry

All artists want to create massive, powerful works to be remembered by. We have visions of our own «Sistine Chapel» that we want to tackle before we die. The problem with epic projects is that they’re often started, but rarely finished. This is precisely why we celebrate massive works: they don’t come along very often. The Sistine Chapel took four years of painting the most difficult form of fresco – buon fresco – on rickety scaffolding, while bending over backwards. (Even Michelangelo was suspicious that his enemies purposely gave the project such a massive scope just to see him fail.₁)

Finishing masterpieces is daunting. Over time, motivation and desire fade.

If establishing such a goal during the nascent stages of a project seems daunting, it needn’t be. Laying out your end game merely means being clear about what you’re trying to achieve with a given creative project. For Michelangelo, it was as specific as paint 5,000 square feet of the Sistine Chapel. For the Beatles, it was as broad as make a record that sounds like something completely new.