Risk Management: Motivation

There are quite a few situations where motivating people to do something may be desirable, important, or even essential. 

As examples, consider: 

• getting a child to clean their room; 
• encouraging workers to be more productive; 
  
• conveying a legal line of argument in a court;
• persuading citizens to comply with actions and avoid other actions in order to contain a pandemic; 
• order soldiers to undertake a task in battle with a high likelihood of being killed or injured. 
  

Now, these are all very different situations, and what is appropriate in one will not be appropriate in another - which is why I have chosen them. 

In all cases, however, there are a few issues to consider. The following list is a starting point for consideration - don't assume it is complete, as I haven't tried to make it so: 

• how effective the method of motivation is in terms of result; 
• what is the cost of the method of motivation; 
• is the method of motivation legal, ethical, in conformity with principles of inclusion and diversity, proportionate, and reasonable?  
• is coercion involved, and if yes, is the coercion legal, ethical, in conformity with principles of inclusion and diversity, proportionate, and reasonable?  
• is method of motivation or the thinking and premises it is based on outmoded, inappropriate, or likely to be ineffective or lead to problems such as legal action, police charges, or professional reviews, or is it genuinely innovative and constructive?
  

Each of these may have sub-questions. For instance:

Effectiveness: 

• how is that defined; 
• how is that measured; 
• what biases influence the definition and measurement; 
• what knowledge is missing from the definition and measurement; 
• what influence does context (direct to that situation and people, indirect - social and broader) and time (the past, the now, and the future) have on the definition and measurement.
  

Cost:

• what is the cost to the person doing the motivating; 
• what is the cost to  the person being motivated; 
• what is the cost to the organisation or group this is taking place in; 
• what is the cost to the broader context (society, those seeing what is happening, those connected to those involved, etc); 
• what influence does context (direct to that situation and people, indirect - social and broader) and time (the past, the now, and the future) have on these costs?

So, let's have a look at a few options for each situation.  

Getting a child to tidy their room 

Now, as a first point, I am not going to waste time on methods that are illegal - at least, where I live and in many other progressive nations, such as physical "discipline"such as smacking. In addition to being illegal (and thus having a potential cost of being charged or losing custody of a child), they fail on issues such as effectiveness (likely to just cause resentment, and do not aid understanding as to why tidiness may be good, disproportionate, not reasonable, the motivation of the action is actually a problem in the parent or the parenting situation [stress, lack of time/support, etc], and so on). 

Now, as a first point, I am not going to waste time on methods that are illegal - at least, where I live and in many other progressive nations, such as physical “discipline” such as smacking. In addition to being illegal (and thus having a potential cost of being charged or losing custody of a child), they fail on issues such as effectiveness (likely to just cause resentment, and do not aid understanding as to why tidiness may be good, disproportionate, not reasonable, the motivation of the action is actually a problem in the parent or the parenting situation [stress, lack of time/support, etc], and so on).

Method	Effectiveness	Cost / problems (risks)	Acceptable?  Coercion?	Innovative / outmoded?
Yell or raise voice	Possibly short term result the first few times	Can create problems in relationship	Not constructive. Such behaviour best reserved for emergency, and then only either to convey urgency or overcome noise.	More likely to be a symptom of parent struggling.
Rewards	Subject to consistency of meeting requirements before giving the rewards, and for rewards being seen as worth the effort by the child.	Ongoing effort required, and need to coordinate if more than one parent/care giver. Should be no rewards for doing the basic level of requirements.	Although more widely viewed as acceptable, is subject to a criticism that teaches reliance on external motivation.	“State of the art”, perhaps more so a couple of decades ago.
Explaining why	This is fairly obviously age dependent, but it is also dependent on the parent understanding the “why” and being able to communicate adequately.	Thought / preparation required, and need to coordinate if more than one parent/care giver. Needs to be applied, may need to be supplemented until habit of tidying is established.	Acceptable.	“State of the art”
Use a combination of techniques	If appropriately selected and varied / adapted as needed, likely to be very effective.	Thought / preparation and ongoing efforts required.	Provided non-coercive techniques selected, acceptable.	Innovative

 

Encouraging workers to be more productive 

Method	Effectiveness	Cost / problems (risks)	Acceptable?  Coercion?	Innovative / outmoded?
Paying a salary / wage	Variable - not only depending on character of worker, but also nature of work, passage of time, external circumstances, and whether pay is adequate on objective grounds (must enable a reasonable quality of life) and in the perception of the worker - all of which may change over time.	Must comply with legal requirements as a minimum, but also must compete with other wages / salaries to keep good workers. Doesn’t provide any particular acknowledgement - especially of extra efforts. (Bonuses are rare these days.)	Is a fundamental requirement now that slavery has been abolished. The US practice of unpaid internships is, in my opinion, unacceptable.	Is an ongoing basic requirement
Paid bonuses	Also variable, for reasons outlined above. In addition, acknowledgments tend to be private, so sense of being praised may be low.	Possibility of resentment. Must comply with legal / contractual / employment requirements.	Can be ethical criticism if excessive, paid despite apparent problems (even if not related to basis of bonus), or contrary to morals/ ethics / social licence.	Outmoded and criticised at executive level.
Formal rewards / acknowledgement	Also variable, but involvement of peers give more personal, meaningful sense of reward.	Possibility of jealousy, and, if reasoning not explained, resentment.	Acceptable (provided is deserved), not coercive.	These days, is state of the art.
Informal rewards / acknowledgement	Depends on the worker - some prefer, some don’t.	May be some concerns as to why workers haven’t been acknowledged - not always expressed.	Acceptable.	Surprisingly, probably innovative.
Team building	If organic and respectful of human variety, effective to a good extent. Outside circumstances can impact for better or worse.	Time, effort and cost required for these exercises, and some approaches are inappropriate (e.g., militarised).	Can be a problem if people are compelled to do this in their time and conflicts with other demands.	Standard, but militarised or boot camp type approach is outmoded.
Enforcement of team / pseudo-friendships	Not effective unless accidentally the people would have formed a natural team anyway.	Resentment, risk of legal Action over privacy / bullying, high likelihood of people leaving.	Highly coercive - and reflects a flawed understanding of humans, and likely flawed personality of those who advocate for the enforcement	Outmoded - and inappropriate.
Avoiding abuse (don’t patronise, criticism in private, etc)	Avoids the damage caused by public attacks. Whether effective in causing an improvement depends on how is delivered - must be understandable to recipient.	Risk of worker resenting criticism or leaving.	Provided is delivered in a way that makes clear what is wanted, and is reasonably sensitively delivered, likely to be acceptable.	Surprisingly, probably innovative.
Support / benefit schemes	Support / benefit schemes were effective when it was introduced, but people are now wondering about whether such measures justify impacts on personal life - particularly after the pandemic.	Cost of measures	Acceptable	State of the art
Looking after workers	Good	Requires time, effort and cost to ensure are doing this - must comply with legal and contractual requirements, and social licence expectations (especially around avoiding modern slavery in supply chains)	Acceptable	Standard Avoiding modern slavery in supply chains in state of the art.
Improving work (variety, training, etc)	Provided training is relevant, and rotation does not put people into areas they do not want, could be effective.	Not always possible.	Provided people are not coerced int training and change is not presented in a threatening way, should be OK.	Standard
Use a combination of techniques	If selected on the basis of what works for different individuals, likely to be very effective.	May need to explain why some variety in how people are handled. Requires manager with genuine liking for people, genuine good understanding of human nature.	Acceptable	Innovative - most management makes the mistake of all or nothing approach focused on one technique only.

Conveying a legal line of argument in a court 

Now, I am not going to consider the legal aspects of this, but there is - in most criminal trials, at least, a jury to convince - and a judge to not annoy.

There will also often be broader social impacts, and, although I cannot consider any specific issues associated with whatever the matter being tried is for this generic example, I will make some comments if the matter was along the lines of child abuse (think of trials of neochristian priests, for instance), egregious corruption (such as the various Watergate trials), etc.

As far as the actions that are reasonable or unreasonable go, I don’t know enough to comment.

It would seem to me that it is best not to antagonise or patronise the judge, but the behaviour of the judge in the trial of the “Chicago 7” was unconscionable, and there is a moral and social need for the judge to be held to account lest such behaviour diminish society’s faith in receiving a fair trial.

There are other issues as well - such misgendering trans exert witnesses. (Afterwards the solicitor representing the complainant who had done the misgendering unbelievably tried to act for the expert witness in a court case against the misgenderer - as if it didn’t really matter what was said so long as the solicitor got his money . . . )

Persuading citizens to comply with actions and avoid other actions in order to contain a pandemic

The pandemic is why I’ve decided to have a go at including this scenario - and I am ware everyone will have at least one, maybe more, opinions.

As a first point, the right to human life, health, and wellbeing exists, and for centuries it has been accepted that some events will require constraints on movement etc to ensure peoples’ right to life, health, and wellbeing is met.

In my opinion, a lot of the opposition - including some business owners - is understandably related to the personal devastation, loss, and even ruination they are facing. However, those that can hold on will be better if death rates are lower - as has been shown by data already (and is also shown by those times in history when some key employers have been farsighted enough to ensure workers had money/time/etc to be able to spend time and money on travelling, shopping, etc). Where business aren’t able to hold on, jobs will be lost, and with that spending for those businesses that survive will also be reduced.

There are also valid mental health concerns as a result of the lockdown, but coming out of lockdown, and then having to go back into lockdown, is also a source of mental health distress and problems.

Conspiracy fantasists do not deserve anything except mental health help, in my opinion, so I won’t waste any space on them.

Method	Effectiveness	Cost / problems (risks)	Acceptable?  Coercion?	Innovative / outmoded?
Education	Potentially very high - must cater for different groups in society, and those doing the educating must NEVER say something they will have to retract later	Low Must be both accessible and understandable to the overwhelming majority of the population	Yes - an essential first step	Relatively new - only realistic since widespread education and communication, so a century or two
Coercion	If health based and does not introduce other significant and unaddressed risks (such as being unable to buy food, job/economic problems, bloody-mindedness of those doing the enforcing ), potentially very high.	Medium Possibility of resentment from some	Depends on how it is enforced, and whether proper consideration has been included for problems	Not new, but has been well proven for about half a millennia, if not longer
Prevention	Generally excellent, but depends on whether prevention is possible. Preserving forests, for instance, would reduce the change of humans coming into contact with other zoonotic illnesses.	Most cost effective	Yes	Been in use for about three centuries and knowledge of disease transmission, hygiene and vaccination developed

 

Order soldiers to undertake a task in battle with a high likelihood of being killed or injured

The key point here is that war should only be an absolute very last resort, but it may - in this imperfect world - be necessary to defend oneself, and genuine wars against evil (such as World War (part) Two - and I cannot think of ANY other example) need to be fought.

Now, another important aspect here is that one of the biggest problems militaries have had is trying to get soldiers to kill the enemy. I’ve written about that elsewhere.

Method	Effectiveness	Cost / problems (risks)	Acceptable?  Coercion?	Innovative / outmoded?
Pre-condition soldier before joining military (e.g., video games)	Debatable and hotly debated.	None to military.	Questionable.	Innovative
Basic and advanced training	Essential foundation. Given changes since militaries became aware of the low numbers of soldiers who actually kill, probably effective - or more so.	Probably acceptable - and unavoidable	In the context of war, the acceptability of this depends of the ethicality of the war itself, and of the soldiers during that war. A further potential problem is the behaviour of soldiers on leave and after leaving the military - which is partly related to extent of support.	Still current - with adaptations
Pre-condition the soldiers for battle conditions in/after training	Reasonable effectiveness, provided reflects expected conditions. Militaries adapt this to new situations, but often have a learning and adaptation period where it may be possible they could do better.	Probably acceptable
Built unit and “buddy” loyalty	Probably one of, if not the, most effective measures.	Low cost
Rapport and guidance from NCOs in combat	Provided the respect and rapport is there, potentially very effective.	No extra cost
Sense of purpose / value of war / being in the military	Essential. This does not flow from a nation’s leaders thinking the war is necessary . . .	No extra cost	Acceptable	Innovative

And here are a few links to consider in light of the above: 

• "Newtonian worldview" (something to avoid); 
  
• "How Straight Talk Helped One State Control COVID"; 
• "It’s About Violence, Not the Patriarchy: How Feminism is Failing Women"; and 
• "Victoria's coronavirus lockdown is almost over and confidence is key in our economic recovery".