Patrick The Optimist

Whilst standing on a Victoria Line platform recently, I saw an advert which really caught my attention. It was about an artist called Patrick who is in the process of painting 100 portraits. Reading further I realised that Patrick – the self-proclaimed ‘optimist’ is actually quite an inspirational man.

At Motion Learning, we’re interested in interesting, thought-provoking and inspirational people, so I wanted to introduce you to Patrick the optimist. Visit his website to find out more – www.patricktheoptimist.org I think you will be encouraged to take action by what you read.

Women Cheat More than Men When Faced with Competition….!

Apparently, according to a recent psychological study – competition increases cheating as opposed to higher levels of performance. Interestingly – in particular women are tempted to cheat!  

The study, conducted in Barcelona by Christiane Schwieren and Doris Weichselbaumer, involved getting people to achieve online tasks, with differing payment conditions attached to separate groups of people. they monitored people in the different groups, and found that the group with the most competition did the most cheating – and in particular the women in the group. For more information about the study – follow this link: http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/

I wonder what some of our trusted motivational theorists would say? We know that in the 60’s Locke and Latham agreed that goals focus and therefore motivate. Vroom followed closely with his ‘expectancy theory’ believing that people are driven by the likelihood of genuine success in achieving particular objectives… Many years before this Skinner was experimenting with his boxes and establishing the effect reward has upon motivation towards doing something. As developers of people, we love these ideas as they provide really tangible ways for a front line manager to raise the levels of motivation of their people. Particularly in sales situations – we encourage adding in the extra little bit of spice, by encouraging competition (with the associated reward of course)

But cheating…!!

So ladies (and gentlemen obviously!) what do you think? Does competition motivate you to increase your levels of performance, or does it encourage you to find the back door and cheat? Answers please – and any examples you can give would I’m sure make very good reading!

Collaborative Negotiation – Is ‘win win’ ever as genuine as it seems, or is it always slightly contrived?

Do you have your own ‘style’ when it comes to negotiating, and if so what does it say about you? Are you bullish, are you rash, are your over sensitive, are you weak… or are you (by nature) ‘fair’?

What do you want to be like as a negotiator, and what message does that send to the rest of the world about who you are and what you stand for?

Winning and losing – surely that’s what it’s all about – and any blend of the two will do. I can think of people whose faces fit into all the categories:

The ‘I always win – you always lose’ approach reminds me of a ruthless board level negotiator who sees negotiation conversations as a fun game. The light glows in her eyes as she sees the game start to play… Watch out as proudly she will swing her arm and wipe out all the unsuspecting (and usually under-prepared) obstacles in her way.  

The ‘OK have it your way’ throws up images of a gentle mannered but flexible finance manager, who seems often at ease with letting things go so the other party can ‘have it their way’. Mind out though for the occasions when it goes a bit too far, and watch him hit the roof when he feels like he’s lost just a bit too much… See the shocked faces around him then.  

Then we come to the ‘win win’ negotiator… the image of calmness, fairness and reasonable open-mindedness. But is this person really for real? Are they genuine or is this such a learned approach it becomes contrived?

People often talk about ‘win win’ like it is something that should always be aimed for, and like it is something people can usually  achieve with enough time and foresight. But can it really achieve results quickly enough in fast paced modern working environments for it to be an option?  Do we even have time or the desire to look for a solution that suits all parties?

John Paul Getty reported his father having once  said to him “You must never try to make all the money that’s in a deal. Let the other fellow make some money too, because if you have a reputation for always making all the money, you won’t have many deals…”

Contrived though this may sound – is it the truth? Is collaborative negotiation just the cleverer way of getting what you want in the long-term?