In a perfect world, everything would run smoothly and we would not have to put our coping skills to the test on a regular basis. However, this statement is not true even in fairy tales, so it shouldn’t be true in real life either.

In this session, we’ll give you a quick overview of what provokes people to behave in ways we don’t want. As we work through the material, think of some ways that you could use these suggestions back in the real world.

The Big Question

How many times have you thought or said, “Why can’t you just do what you’re supposed to?” Here’s a list of possible answers to your question:

• They didn’t know why they should do it
• They didn’t know when to begin and end it.
• They didn’t know what they were supposed to do.
• They didn’t know how to do it.
• They thought they were doing it.
• They thought your way wouldn’t work or that their way was best.
• They thought something else was more important.
• They aren’t rewarded for doing it, or they aren’t punished for not doing it.
• They are rewarded for not doing it, or they are punished for doing it.
• They didn’t think they could do it.

While this list was originally compiled by a survey conducted with 4,000 employees and managers with various occupations in a wide variety of industries, the results are borne out repeatedly through repeated surveys and employee engagement data.

(Source: Ferdinand F. Fournies, Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to Do About It)

Remember that everyone is motivated, but that each of us are motivated by things that have value to us personally. This means some of the people your work with may be motivated by the same things that you are, but other people won’t be.