What does it take motivate your personnel as you lead your organization through necessary health care change?
There are 6 main attitudes which you can identify, and then use, to motivate your key personnel. Then there are 6 stages of the process of change which will assist you in moving your people in the positive direction.
Theoretical, Utilitarian, Aesthetic, Social, Individual, Traditional are the labels for the 6 basic attitudes that affect how people are motivated. Managers benefit from knowing which attitude predominately motivates each of their key personnel. By identifying the motivation, a manager can understand and then guide their people to the highest levels of performance and productivity. This will also hold true for motivating your staff as you lead health care changes which will control costs, increase productivity, reduce accidents/illnesses, and may enhance retention goals.
Let’s look briefly at each of these major attitudes.
Theoretically motivated people have a passion for discovery of truth. They seek new information that will feed their need to understand and increase their knowledge. In leading health care change, health care changes must begin with accurate information regarding general health and then a more individualized presentation regarding their specific health and performance challenges, and the long term goal of a company sponsored health plan.
A person driven by a strong Utilitarian attitude, has passion for ROI (a return on investment). They want to know how they will profit from new health care changes. They may not care about other people’s health or even the well being of the company. You must show them how they will benefit, especially with increasing financial profits, by their participation. If there is any cash/financial incentive in health care participation, a high Utilitarian will be more motivated to participate.
If a person is “driven” by their Aesthetic attitude, they respond to acquiring nice things and having a calm/beautiful environment. They do not like clutter, chaos, or noisy confrontation. There may be a need to appeal to their creativity to help with creating an ideal state of form and harmony. Beauty and grace may be good motivations.
People motivated by Social attitudes will respond well when the good of an organization, or even better, society as a whole, will benefit from a new health care plan. Being a role model and being able to share their passion with others may help to keep these people involved. They often have an inherent love of people with sympathetic and unselfish motivation to make the world better. Let them “help” others and be recognized for this participation.
The person driven by an Individualistic attitude is seeking power. They want influence and control and will often hide their motivation in another expression of these 6 attitudes. They will want to be around high performing, powerful people and then bask in a spotlight of renown. They will be motivated by your organization’s leadership being involved and committed to the new health care plan. They need recognition for their involvement.
Finally, if a person is motivated by a Traditional attitude, they will respond to health care changes that are defined (or described) by their strongly held values and beliefs. They may driven by a “black and white” view of tradition and philosophy. Their political or religious views by be strong and inflexible and should be considered in a program that will motivate this individual. Once “on-board,” they may be zealous in their participation.
Once you have indentified which of these main attitudes motivate your targeted person, you can then benefit from understanding which stage of change they are currently in to know how best to support them as they move towards the habit change goals. Knowing the stages of change will give you the skills to manage these individuals most effectively.
Changing for Good by James Prochaska, John Norcross and Carlo DiCLemente (Avon: New York 1994) is a book that can lay a foundation for changing habits. These observed stages, can help identify what stage an individual may be in the process of change and help to know which direction they need to move to achieve the desired results. These techniques for achieving change are correlated to six stages of change which the authors have observed:
1) Precontemplation or denial
2) Contemplation – beginning to acknowledge a problem
3) Preparation – planning to take action
4) Action – modifying previous action
5) Maintenance – sustaining new behavior
6) Termination – new behavior is a habit
A leader can benefit from knowing these stages. Combining this knowledge with an understanding regarding an individual’s motivation will offer the best chance for positive results when leading a change in an organization’s health care plan.
Implementation of these principles can be confusing in the beginning, to assist you as a manager, there are assessments that can easily identify people’s attitudes and values for your use in motivating your key personnel.
