{"id":110,"date":"2017-12-20T11:24:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T11:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/december-20-2017-throw-down-a-challenge\/"},"modified":"2017-12-20T11:24:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T11:24:43","slug":"december-20-2017-throw-down-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/december-20-2017-throw-down-a-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"December 20, 2017 Throw down a challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

When nothing else works, try throwing down a challenge.\u00a0 The desire to excel! The challenge! Throwing down the gauntlet! An infallible way of appealing to people of spirit.\u00a0 Charles Schwab said: \u201cThe way to get things done, is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting way, but in the desire to excel<\/strong>.\u201d
\n\u201cI have never found,\u201d said Harvey S. Firestone, founder of the great Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, \u201cthat pay and pay alone would either bring together or hold good people. I think it was the game itself.\u201d
\nFrederic Herzberg, one of the great behavioral scientists, concurred. He studied in depth the work attitudes of thousands of people ranging from factory workers to senior executives. What do you think he found to be the most motivating factor\u2014the one facet of the jobs that was most stimulating? Money? Good working conditions? Fringe benefits? No\u2014not any of those. The one major factor that motivated people was the work itself. If the work was exciting and interesting, the worker looked forward to doing it and was motivated to do a good job.\u201d
\nEvery successful person loves: the game. The chance for self-expression. The chance to prove his or her worth, to excel, to win. That is what makes footraces and hog-calling and pie-eating contests. The desire to excel. The desire for a feeling of importance.
\nCharles Schwab had a mill manager whose people weren\u2019t producing their quota of work.\u00a0 \u201cHow is it,\u201d Schwab asked him, \u201cthat a manager as capable as you can\u2019t make this mill turn out what it should?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d the manager replied. \u201cI\u2019ve coaxed the men, I\u2019ve pushed them, I\u2019ve sworn and cussed, I\u2019ve threatened them with damnation and being fired. But nothing works. They just won\u2019t produce.\u201d
\nThis conversation took place at the end of the day, just before the night shift came on. Schwab asked the manager for a piece of chalk, then, turning to the nearest man, asked: \u201cHow many heats did your shift make today?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSix.\u201d
\nWithout another word, Schwab chalked a big figure six on the floor, and walked away.
\nWhen the night shift came in, they saw the \u201c6\u201d and asked what it meant.
\n\u201cThe big boss was in here today,\u201d the day people said. \u201cHe asked us how many heats we made, and we told him six. He chalked it down on the floor.\u201d
\nThe next morning Schwab walked through the mill again. The night shift had rubbed out \u201c6\u201d and replaced it with a big \u201c7.\u201d
\nWhen the day shift reported for work the next morning, they saw a big \u201c7\u201d chalked on the floor. So the night shift thought they were better than the day shift, did they? Well, they would show the night shift a thing or two. The crew pitched in with enthusiasm, and when they quit that night, they left behind them an enormous, swaggering \u201c10.\u201d Things were stepping up.\u201d\u00a0 Dale Carnegie. \u201cHow to Win Friends & Influence People.\u201d
\nIn life think about the times you have been the most motivated.\u00a0 Most probably involved a scoreboard of some kind.\u00a0 You may have been working on a team to produce a personal best or in a competition to get certain results.\u00a0 \\”When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.\u201d Thomas S. Monson.
\nIf you are looking for a way to motivate others or even yourself, keep score.\u00a0 Not for the purpose of deciding a winner and loser but for the purpose of putting meaning in the work others find dull, boring or difficult.\u00a0 The simple fact is, if you want something to improve, set and expectation, post the teams results and get out of the way.\u00a0 You will find the leadership on your team and people will respond to reach the expectations.\u00a0 Human nature comes with a great desire to feel important and contribute.\u00a0 We will see improvement when we keep score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When nothing else works, try throwing down a challenge.\u00a0 The desire to excel! The challenge! Throwing down the gauntlet! An infallible way of appealing to people of spirit.\u00a0 Charles Schwab said: \u201cThe way to get things done, is to stimulate competition. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting way, but in the desire to …<\/p>\n

December 20, 2017 Throw down a challenge<\/span> Read More \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifesomeday.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}