Inspiring is not giving an entertaining speech

Motivation is a comprehensive phenomenon that affects every behavior. Much of motivation is simply the reward exchange judgement someone makes, which results in their effort (giving personal attentional resources) toward a behavior because the benefit they receive from the behavior is worth their effort.

Compensation an employee receives determines the effort they give toward their job description and performance objectives. Athletes give effort toward training and practice so they can receive the rewards that go with winning (monetary and non monetary). Children obey their parents to receive their favor both in praise and gifts. Much of a person's motivation can be explained by reward structures of exchange.

When we think about inspiration, we normally are referring to motivation that results in effort toward behavior beyond the established exchange structures. One problem people have with inspiration is that they simply add to the reward structures, such as bonuses, employee recognition, perks, and so forth. This is just more of the basic exchange based motivation and is not considered inspiration.

There are two venues by which individuals give more effort toward a behavior without increasing the rewards they receive in exchange for their behavior. One way for someone to be inspired to give more effort is by placing a higher priority on the positive rewards from a behavior than on the negative outcomes of the behavior. The second way is to get effort beyond the basic exchange structure of rewards is to stimulate the intrinsic factors associated with the rewards. I'll discuss these in more detail but let me note that the mechanism by which each of these two forces are unleashed (that is, inspiration occurs) requires reappraisal.

Reappraisal is the process of thinking about the consequences of an event in ways that negative felt emotions are minimized or eliminated and positive emotions are generated and stimulated. I'll discuss ways to reappraise later blogs. For purposes of this blog, let's examine the two venues by which a person is inspired.

Every behavior an individual can activate by applying their personal resources toward the behavior has a complex of outcomes. In most cases these outcomes can be both positive and negative. So when we create a compensation structure in exchange for an employee's behavior, the employer generally just perceives that the employee's outcome is positive to them and therefore results in appropriate effort. However, to behave in ways that result in the compensation (a positive thing for the employee), he/she must also receive negative outcomes from that same behavior. the employee must spend time away from other things they may wish to do. They may have to work with people they don;t like. I am afraid i could make a bigger list of negatives than i can of positives in most cases. Employees give more effort on their job tasks when they have placed the positive rewards of compensation as a higher priority than the negative outcomes. In a sense the employee is "inspired" to give more effort when they reappraise the outcomes so that the positive ones outweigh the negative ones. the size of the reward in the exchange has not been increased but the saliency of the job behaviors have been increased through the prioritization process and the job tasks grab more of the employees' attention than before.

Let's look at a more simple example. Suppose the behavior in question is physical exercise. The positive reward for exercise is weight loss, improved cardio system, and appearance. However, exercise also results in being tired and sweaty. It tasks time and usually I have to go to the gym. the amount of effort an individual gives to exercise is the result of placing a higher priority on the positive benefits than on the negative consequences of exercise. When an individual reappraises exercise outcomes in a way that the negatives are diminished and the positives are strengthened, the individual is inspired.

The second way to inspire is to invade one's intrinsics and stimulate or heighten their priority in the decision the individual makes about the direction and intensity they give their attentional resources.

The main components of intrinsic motivation are meaning, purpose, and enjoyment. These are outcomes or benefits to the individual that are sourced from within themselves as an internal byproduct of the behavior and not a benefit provided by someone external to the individual. Again, reappraisal is the mechanism to raise the priority of of intrinsic benefit so that positive emotions are generated by the behavior, resulting in greater effort to increase the outcomes.

In summary, inspiring someone is getting them to give more effort toward a task or goal without changing the existing reward exchange system. This occurs in two ways. One, individuals perceive the external rewards from the behavior in increasing priority over the negative consequences. Second, individuals gain an increasing awareness and desire for the meaning, purpose and enjoyment they receive from the behavior. Prioritization and awareness makes the behavior more useful to the individual and therefore, he or she gives more effort.      

That's inspiration ......