Performance: The Secrets of Successful Behaviour

Chapter 7. What makes people whistle on the way to work?

	We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.
	--(Peter Drucker)

Any discussion about continuous performance improvement must address the issue of motivation. An underlying principle of Behaviour Kinetics is that people change because they want to, not because someone else wants them to. The question, of course, is why do they want to?

There are many incorrect assumptions about motivation. For example that motivation is a personality trait; you either have it or you don’t. Or that money is what really motivates people. Or that people are motivated by a stirring message. Of course it depends on who delivers the stirring message. Winston Churchill’s famous opening ...