Craig Muller is a third-generation motivator. His father and his grandfather both devoted their careers to devising incentives to get consumers to not only buy from corporations but to also get excited about buying from them. In a recent interview with Computerworld's Melissa Solomon, Muller offered advice on how employers can motivate workers despite the layoffs and sinking profits that are crippling IT departments nationwide.
Most companies look at what happens before the behavior. . . .
All that does is get the behavior started. It will cause a one-time occurrence of behavior. But the opportunity we really have is to look at what happens after a behavior - what behavior scientists call the consequence. The more positive it is, the more immediate it is and the more certain that the consequence is there, the more likelihood you have of the behavior repeating or sustaining itself. Always trying to use compensation in the form of bonuses at the end of the year, because we experience the same kind of motivation when we try to diet.