Carrot or stick - how do you motivate peopole? – Part 2

Posted: Feb 27, 2016

Do they prefer carrots or sticks? – Part 2

In Part 1 we looked at the towards/away from meta-programme and explored why dangling a ‘carrot’ in front of some people gets them to act while others respond to a ‘stick’. When talking about the future, ‘towards’ people will tend to tell you what they want while ‘away from’ people will usually tell you what they don’t want. Knowing this we can identify how someone is motivated and can then modify our own language to obtain the results or actions we want.

In Part 2 we’ll look at ways of communicating with ‘towards’ people and ‘away from’ people which enable you to use their meta-programme to help you achieve your goals.

If you want to negotiate with ‘towards’ people you need to work out what their goals are and what you can do to help them achieve those goals, all the time focusing on the outcome and what it will give them

To negotiate with ‘away from’ people you will need to identify how you can help them avoid whatever it is they don’t want, anticipate potential problems they will face and assure them that, with your help, these can be minimized or avoided.

If you are managing a ‘towards’ person you can offer incentives in the form of desirable objects or outcomes, and alsoemphasise their personal goals and how they can achieve them.

When managing an ‘away from’ person you can use sanctions to create an unpleasant outcome they will be motivated to work away from and avoid.

The language you use will have an effect too. Words like ‘get’, ‘want’, ‘accomplish’, ‘achieve’, ‘attain’, ‘include’, ‘obtain’, ‘have’ and ‘gain’ will resonate with ‘towards’ people while ‘avoid’, ‘remove’, ‘keep away from’, ‘take away’, ‘don’t want’, ‘remove’, ‘get rid of’, ‘prevent’ and ‘solution’ will all motivate ‘away from’ people.

Remember, ‘towards’ people are motivated by the promise of the carrot. Tell them about the benefits and rewards and their eyes will light up as they become excited by the positive benefits. ‘Away from’ people will tend to see the problems and what can go wrong – emphasise the negative consequences of not acting and they’ll be motivated to move away from them.