Author Archives: orgmotivation
Overcoming that ‘stupid’ feeling: a lesson for managers
I came across this excellent blog post by Christopher VanLang this afternoon, which talks about how to overcome the ‘stupid’ feeling that many PhD students get at various points during their studies brought on by the nature of the learning … Continue reading
Filed under autonomy
The power of diaries
Theresa Amabile and Steven Kramer recent book, “The Progress Principle”, has attracted significant interest in the blogosphere of late. These authors have carried out research into daily experience at work, and concluded that small wins (progress) are the key to … Continue reading
Filed under phd process
End of year two…
I have now reached the official end of my second (part-time) year of study towards my PhD and, inspired partly by my end of year PhD report and by @ianrobsons’ blog post, I thought I might make a few comments on … Continue reading
Filed under phd process
My PhD…in plain English
Inspired by @lizith on #phdchat, who has written a blog post describing her research in plain English, I thought I would give it a go myself. I would really value your thoughts, comments and questions… If someone enjoys their work, … Continue reading
Filed under motivation, phd process, reward
Poster presentations
Last year I was accepted to present a poster at a conference. I didn’t have a clue what this meant…aside from the fact that it must involve a big piece of paper! I did some research and was delighted with … Continue reading
Filed under motivation, phd process
Productivity
Inspired by a blog post I read this morning from Tony Schwartz at HBR (via @occupationalpsy) about his plan for 90-minutes of productivity each morning I have been reflecting on my own strategy for productivity. Yesterday is a great example: I … Continue reading
Filed under phd process
Money controls…
“When people say that money motivates, what they really mean is that money controls” In one sentence, Edward Deci, one of the founding fathers of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), sums up why I find this theory so compelling. It’s been nearly a … Continue reading
Filed under motivation, reward
The Fun Theory
This website shows some fantastic ideas collated by Volkswagen about harnessing intrinsic motivation to encourage people to perform normally boring tasks by making them interesting! http://www.thefuntheory.com/ The piano staircase is fantastic…I would run up and down the stairs for that … Continue reading
Filed under motivation
Don’t over cook your carrot!
I came across this really interesting article (via @ManageU) about Building a Better Carrot with tips on how to design better compensation systems in times when budgets are tight. There are some great examples on here of organisations using inventive … Continue reading
Filed under motivation, reward
Controlling my connectivity
I came across this fantastic article (via @garydstratton through #phdchat) about a professor in the US who challenged his students, in exchange for extra credit, to give up their smartphones for 5 days. Their reactions are fascinating: http://chronicle.com/article/Thoreaus-Cellphone-Experiment/125962/ I am … Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
