Overview

People are complicated creatures. Motivating them to perform their roles in security programs is a complicated business, too, and sometimes a very frustrating one. Just figuring out why people are acting the way they are can leave you scratching your head. In this chapter and the next couple of chapters, we're going to help you eliminate some of the head scratching and frustration. We're not promising miracles or to make your life easy. (Our magic wand's in the repair shop.) But we'll try to provide you with some ideas and ways of looking at motivation that you can use as you work on your motivation efforts.

The nice part is that all of us have tons of experience motivating people. We've been doing it literally all our lives. When you were a baby, you motivated your mom and dad to give you a bottle. You motivated your neighbors to buy Girl Scout cookies or tickets for the basketball league raffle. You motivated that cute girl or guy in high school to ask you for a date or say yes when you asked. And you motivated your employer to hire you. We're involved in motivating people and being motivated by others in lots of ways every day. We've got loads of experience. What most of us don't have is a set of tools theories or models to help us think about and understand what's going on and apply what we've learned through experience in unfamiliar situations. We're going...