THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PROJECTS, PEOPLE AND GOALS

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PROJECTS, PEOPLE AND GOALS
(Revised 28 Jan 2021)

We often think that the logical process for goal definition and progress tracking is as follows

• Where am I now? - Current reality, with supporting facts and implications
• Where do I want to be? - What do I want to achieve, ideally as a SMART goal 
• How do I get there? - How will I meet that goal, target, objective or performance criteria 

Once we have established the "what" we can tackle the "how". From there we can expand the tasks into Objectives and Key Results [OKRs] and the measure the outcomes using Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] and use an agile or waterfall approach to the governance over the roles, goals and controls.

Hold that thought, we will come back to this.

MOTIVATION 

We know from psychology that what motivates people is their "why" and this is somewhere in their psyche between nature and nurture, something partially conscious (to be a Doctor/Pilot/Lawyer/Fireman in order to... ) and partially subconscious (to fulfil my promise, intent, value, potential... ) 

Because this is part of my family, club, community, culture...
Because this is congruent with my values and beliefs..
Because this is about my sense of self, my identity and who I want to be in the world...

These are very powerful examples of "why" and everyone's may be different, such that in a business you have many different motivations to the same project goal. When you have a clear "why" then the drive and positive emotion derived from that will help you tackle the "how" no matter that this may be difficult or seem impossible.

As Friedrich Nietzsche said “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

So we have looked at Where, How and Why. Let's keep going.

WE SEEK OPPORTUNITIES TO SATISFY OUR NEEDS
 

We do not see things (objects or tools) and then notice them, as the saying suggests "I'll believe it when I see it." 

The reverse is true. "When I believe it I will seek it, and see it. " We enter any situation with expectations and we look to confirm or validate them and become curious or possibly anxious if our assumptions are wrong.

There are many phenomena to illustrate the idea of knowledge, expectations or interests affecting what we see. If you are pregnant you suddenly notice all the pregnant people in the world. If you buy a yellow car, start to notice all the yellow cars  on the road. If you are hungry you are attuned to finding food. If you have a [personal goal] you will seek ways and means to achieve that. 

So the things (objects or tools) are noticeable if they are relevant or significant to you or your goal. Otherwise they are ignored. You cannot notice everything, all of the time. You have a filter. Opportunity may be literally staring you in the face and you wont see it if it doesn't match the pattern you are looking for.

in this context even a person may be an object (passive) or a tool (usable/useful) and either objects or tools may be helpful and positive or unhelpful and negative. 

Many people are familiar with the invisible gorilla test. It is there, but you do not notice it unless it fits with your [personal goal] otherwise you are blind to it.

Imagine you are asked to watch a short video (link below) in which six people-three in white shirts and three in black shirts-pass basketballs around. While you watch, you must keep a silent count of the number of passes made by the people in white shirts. At some point, a gorilla strolls into the middle of the action, faces the camera and thumps its chest, and then leaves, spending nine seconds on screen. Would you see the gorilla? 

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/gorilla_experiment.html

Indeed if you are already familiar with the invisible gorilla perhaps try a variation to test yourself.

http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html

Arguably therefore the role of a Consultant, Coach or Mentor is to put the job, product, project, goal into a context that matches the pattern searching of the person. And a key step to achieving that is to understand what pattern they are searching for: their purpose or a personal goal that would be a stepping stone toward that purpose.

There is a strong argument from a communications and change perspective that people should be regarded as pattern matching machines rather than thinking and evaluating beings. Because the latter process of thinking (fast or slow) only starts after recognition of a pattern for which we have been primed (by nature, nurture, experience, assumptions or beliefs )

So we have looked at Where, How and Why and a little about motivation and how we perceive things.

A CORPORATE WHY IS NOT THE SAME AS A PERSONAL WHY

The book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek is highly recommended

Start With Why (2011) tackles a fundamental question: What makes some organizations and people more innovative, influential, and profitable than others? They start with why - the vision and mission behind their efforts. Starting with why yields benefits like a more inspired team, more loyal customers, and enduring long-term success. In Start With Why, learn how to discover your why and communicate it through your organization and to the outside world.

Start With Why argues that WHY leads to the HOW and the WHAT:

• The WHY: This is the vision of your company. It’s the motivation behind your service or product. 
• The HOW: The HOW is the practical, operational knowledge that brings the vision to life.
• The WHAT: The WHAT is the product or service your selling. 

However this starts with why as a product vision, not a personal motivation. As a Consultant and Project Manager I am interested in the product vision (outcome) but as  a Coach and Mentor I am interested in the psychology or motivation of the people (the pattern setting, seeking and matching process)

If you were to ask the average job applicant why they work at ABC Co Ltd their answers are unlikely to be the same as the founding members or the product vision. Their answers are more likely to be as follows.

Because this is a decent job, with decent pay, and good terms ... as a stepping stone to [personal goal]
Because this is a job, training and perks which enable me to ... move towards  [personal goal]
Because this is a career, service or product that satisfies my ... [personal goal]

And that is a good thing. Since people change jobs within 3-5 years you would hope that each is a step toward a  [personal goal] rather than to require that we set a new [personal goal] every time we change role. We might speculate that something is awry and question your character and values if you fundamentally changed as a person with each job role!

Taking this perspective  the corporate or product why is simply providing a vehicle (project or job) which is a stepping stone for the  [personal goal] which we explore further below in the analogy of a law student working in a bar.

So here we may have a problem. The "why" for product is not the same as the "why" for a person. They may be aligned, but they are not the same.


BEING CAUTIOUS ABOUT ASKING WHY

There is a time and place to ask "why", but it bears thinking about.

Ask "Why did you do that" and someone is likely to be defensive. Or simply unable to articulate the feeling, emotions or values deep in their pysche. Either way you are unlikely to get a coherent answer which has utility. This is because "it's what my mother would have wanted" is hardly going to help you with the  improvement of a process or the delivery of an outcome. 

Ask "What or how" something happened and someone is likely to be descriptive in a way that supports understanding and learning. This has greater utility, and ironically might, through further probing identify the motivation (by understanding the pattern setting, seeking and matching process) as well as the methods.  

This suggests that asking "why" about a product is useful, but asking "why" about a persons motives, values, assumptions and beliefs may create defensiveness. And the more you insist, the more they resist. 

GOALS AND PURPOSE AND POSITIVE EMOTION (WELLBEING)

So how should we look at business, product, service and people goals? Let's start with people.

Let's explore the pattern setting, seeking and matching process. Using the examples above you want to a Doctor (conscious goal) because this is about my sense of self, my identity and who I want to be in the world (unconscious goal) which is a function of nature, nurture, culture and experience. 

You now have a pattern and you will see paths to this purpose: you may work harder in biology than art, you may pursue science rather than geography, you'll pursue courses, grades and experiences which are congruent with that goal. You might get a  student job in a bar, which doesnt have much to do with being a physician, but if it pays tuition fees then it is congruent with that goal.

In this context even a crappy job, if it is congruent with that goal has purpose and offers positive emotion: the feeling that you are moving towards your goal. We often see this with high performance athletes who push beyond normality and pain. Without a goal or purpose of personal value you cannot experience positive emotion. This purpose of personal value is responsibility and the reward is positive emotion.

It is useful to contrast this with CONSUMPTION AND SATISFACTION

If you are hungry, thirsty or needy you may be driven to satiate that need. Having eaten the feeling of hunger goes away. You are satisfied. And so with that feeling extinguished the question is "What Next?" So when you are "satisfied" with the house, car, job, money there is a pursuit of "What Next?" . This maybe more, or bigger, or latest. But this is a pursuit of consumption and satisfaction. It is not positive emotion.

In this case, working in exactly the same crappy job, you will at best be satisfied but unlikely to experience  the positive emotion of progressing towards a goal (unless your goal is to one day be the boss or own the company)

And it is also useful to understand the risks of HEDONISM AND HAPPINESS

The pursuit of happiness, without the burden of responsibility, is hedonism. This is temporary in-the-moment happiness, but it isnt positive emotion. Drinking is fun. Being drunk may be fun. Hangovers are not. Likewise many other temptations which have their price. But hedonism thinks about now, not the future. It thinks about the moment not the consequences. It thinks about happiness without responsibility. People who see themselves as victims, who give-up on personal responsibility and accountability can find life lacks purpose, lacks positive emotion. They may turn to shallow hedonism instead. 

So how does this impact business, products, or services. Well I would suggest the positive emotion of people is really important to how customers, clients or consumers experience business, products, or services. We say attitude affects altitude and from the examples above we may be able to see why.

POSITIVE EMOTION (WELLBEING) IS NOT THE SAME AS HAPPINESS

Let's explore the positive emotion of people.

Some argue that hedonism is seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering, which are the components of well-being, but it seems to me this is wrong. Well-being is positive emotion, and it is linked to responsibility and a purpose of personal value. Happiness, in the form of hedonism, is temporary and ultimately destructive. Satisfaction is insatiable, always looking for the next thing.

Performance athletes often talk of Type1 Fun (the fun you have during an event) and Type2 Fun (the fun experience after an event having advanced or progressed as a result). I think happiness is akin to Type1 and wellbeing to Type2. This is consistent with the musings of a good friend who said: "Its not about feeling better, its about having better feeling"

I believe you will find well-being in true positive emotion that lasts into the future. Find a purpose of personal value and take responsibility for it.

CONCLUSION
There are a lot of ideas here, some of which are complex, and some are challenging to explain. I welcome feedback.

Being a Consultant, Coach and Mentor are simply different roles to the same purpose: to support people or organisations achieve their goals. Just as we might break a strategy into its constituent parts, examine each element and seek to improve the process, performance and outcome we should do the same for our people. 

It is a great thing to deliver a project, product or service on-time, on-budget, to-specification and profitably to a happy customer. I believe it is a wholly important thing to understand and satisfy the motivation of the people (the pattern setting, seeking and matching process). If you can achieve your project, product or service and support people's capacity, drive, desire and wellbeing, then you have really achieved something which will outlive your project, product or service.

Tim HJ Rogers MBA CITP 
PROJECTS, PROGRAMMES and CHANGE /  CONSULTANT MENTOR COACH
Adapt Consulting Company 
Consult CoCreate Deliver
Mob +447797762051 Tim@AdaptConsultingCompany.com

Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader and an ICF Trained Coach as well as mentor for the IoD. He is a past curator for TEDx. Roles have included Programme Manager for the incorporation of Ports and Jersey, and Jersey Post, as well as Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower. He has a passion for learning and has been a Tutor/Mentor for the Chartered Management Institute. He is a former Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.  



LINKS
1-Page Book Summary of Start With Why 
https://www.shortform.com/B/summary/start-with-why-summary-simon-sinek?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmL-ABhDFARIsAKywVaeXPb0i2wtFKFwfR7govB9RN0BP0T8lAkkTXYyCBgfr_RuL7hQtx3EaAsy_EALw_wcB