Unfortunately, 99% of people we talk to don’t know what that one thing is, so their leadership and the people they lead suffer. We call this one thing The Ultimate Why™ and to truly motivate your workforce there is nothing more critical.
We Are in a Motivation Crisis
Lack of motivation cripples organizations. Studies by Gallup of 30 million workers report that 50% of employees are disengaged and are actively looking for new jobs; 20% are disgruntled and oppositional, leaving only 30% engaged with work. Imagine a sports team where 5 out of 10 don’t care who wins, 2 of 10 were oppositional and only 3 wanted to win. Would this team have any hope of winning? Would you enjoy working on this team? As a result, the average workplace is losing 22% profits, losing 37% of employees to turnover, and losing 21% in productivity. All this is due to lack of motivation. We are spiraling into a crisis of motivation and the last companies to realize this will be the first to lose.
What’s Worse We Don’t
Know How to Motivate.
When we ask managers and CEOs if they know what’s the one thing that motivates all people, and most hesitate and say three words, “I don’t know.” Perhaps after some thought, they will suggest money, power, or achievements. Tragically, using these three as motivators has the opposite effect and they end up de-motivating people. According to Yale motivation expert, Paul Marciano, PhD carrots and sticks will only make things worse. Study after study concludes that extrinsic methods will work briefly, and then result in ever-diminishing results. Rewards act in the same way an addiction does, a brief high, that can never really satisfy and then a low followed by a downward spiral. Being unaware of what motivates all people results in this vicious cycle of demotivation. Understanding the Ultimate Why™ that motivates all people is critical for leaders of any organization.
The ULTIMATE WHY™ is the Solution
When we ask people what the Ultimate Why™ is they try to answer it with their “left brain,” and they cannot come up with the answer. But when we reframe the question nearly 100% of people answer it correctly and immediately, because this reframed question appeals to the right brain. We call this the Eternity Question:
What is the one thing you could
live with for all Eternity?
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Money alone and nothing else?
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Power alone and nothing else?
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Great achievements alone and nothing else?
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Or to be surrounded by people who
love and care for you for all eternity?
Everyone we ask answers ”people who love and care for me”. Loving connection is the Ultimate Why™. It is the one thing that people want more than anything else in this world. Everyone knows in their gut it’s true because they have experienced it in life. And in fact, the other options are ridiculous by comparison. What is more, psychologists and researchers confirm this conclusion. Here are just a few leading researchers that confirm loving connection is the base of human motivation:
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Dr. Sue Johnson
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Dr. Allen Schore
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Dr. Jim Wilder
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Dr. Jim Loehr
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Dr. Matthew Lieberman
Our gut and researchers agree that we are created for connection, we are inherently social beings. Our social brain (right brain) is the most influential part of our brain. The brain releases serotonin and other neurotransmitters that bring a feeling of joy and contentment when we experience loving connection. Other pleasures make us happy for a moment but then leave us unsatisfied and wanting ever-increasing rewards to feel even slightly motivated.
The Ultimate Why™ of loving connection motivates us to do the biggest and greatest things in our lives, and we feel good about doing them. This isn’t a hippie, romantic, or infatuated kind of love. It’s a dedicated love–getting up with kids at 3 am, staying late to keep a promise to a client, firefighters running into the fire to save a stranger, calming an irate customer, taking a bullet for your country, working 40 years to support kids and grandkids. This kind of love motivates and sustains us all. It is the Ultimate Why™.
It takes more than knowledge of the ULTIMATE WHY™. it takes a focused culture.
Unfortunately, just knowing the Ultimate Why™ is still not enough to change an organization. It requires creating a culture based on the Ultimate Why™. GSG’s Ultimate Culture Curriculum focuses organizations on the one key motivation. Our Curriculum guides your teams to break down the Ultimate Why™ to practical implementation with seminars and weekly discussions. We start with each individual’s personal connection to the Ultimate Why™: For example, if you retire, deep down, what would you want people to say about you? We’d all say something like “He cared, he gave it all, we trusted him, he loved, he really lived.” Each individual has deep values that come from the Ultimate Why™. These form the foundation for deep motivation for each individual. Next, we create focus your teams. Teams dedicated to helping each teammate succeed so the whole team is moving towards Ultimate Why™. This creates a unified team purpose. Next, we focus for organizations on the community they serve, with the goal of constantly refining your products, services, and processes to care more for the people and communities you touch with your business or organization. The Ultimate Why™ gives, grows, and inspires the world it motivates. The Ultimate Why™ creates a culture of accountability where everyone is talking, acting and living in the same direction. It requires a method to focus on the Ultimate Why, day-in and day-out. GSG’s Ultimate Culture Curriculum is that system.
Highlights of GSG Ultimate Culture Curriculum:
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GSG’s method is focused on the deepest level of human motivation, the Ultimate Why™.
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It provides accountability by holding up the best version of ourselves as our personal standards.
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Shifts motivation to self rather than top down.
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Shifts discussions from errors to individual potential.
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Teams and individuals encouraged to constant growth and improvement.
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GSG’s method is focused on one thing rather than 24 steps or twelve things.
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GSG’s method provides ongoing resources for your teams every week, rather than a few days of consultations and a binder on the shelf.
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GSG’s method is customizable for multiple locations, shifts, and types of workers.
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It is available in both online and in-person implementation.
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Results in higher profits, lower turnover, higher quality and more.
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Results in a workplace where people enjoy their work and their colleagues.
Assess Phase
We will survey your organization to establish a starting point for your level of employee engagement. We will assess your organization for culture change readiness.
Spark Phase
We will teach the core concepts of the Ultimate Why to your organization and spark the inspiration into your leadership.
Sustain Phase
As your team leaders roll out these concepts to your whole staff, we will provide ongoing materials to help your team stay focused on the new cultural norms.
Start Today
Get in touch with GSG now to begin your organization's journey towards the Ultimate Why™
This is a call to leadership on a deeper level. This is a big dream that everyone would be able to come to work and connect that with the deepest core of who we are as human beings. That we have love within us and when we give the gift or our work that brings life and value to others and our selves as well. We want to inspire a movement of leadership towards the deepest motivational value that we hold in common. The Ultimate Why. If that inspires your world. Let's lead to the Ultimate Why and make your world an amazing place to live in.
Contact Randal Weidenaar our Director of Employee Engagement Consulting to get an overview of what implementation can look like.
OTHER EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONSULTING SERVICES
Keynote
Speaking
Half Day
Seminars
Employee Engagement
Assessments
BR+E 22
Program
(For Economic Development Groups)
INSIGHTS FROM EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONSULTING PRACTICE
DIRECTOR OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT CONSULTING
RANDAL S. WEIDENAAR, Culture Change Consultant
Randal Weidenaar is a dynamic Culture Change Consultant. In his career, he has worked with cultures from every continent, and individuals from Wall Street boardrooms to refugees on the streets of Athens, Greece. He has been in marketing for two decades and international social work for a third decade. He was educated in Europe and lived there for ten years. His background has given him keen insight into what shapes culture. Culture is the key to change, it shapes belief and behavior.
