Motivation In The Water

So I'm fighting how to motivate others.

One of the great challenges I am fighting at my current position is a general sense of malaise. As I described it to Fear Beag and Fear Mor it's as if there is a preset level of enthusiasm which occasionally blips up but seems to be constantly held at a steady line and there seems to be nothing that can be done about it. One doesn't want to try negative motivation which works per se for a little while but is not sustainable long term and one does not have the opportunity to try positive motivation (i.e. money) as that is not in the power of middle management.

So here's the question? How do you motivate others? Or to ask it another way, how do you get people to care?

It is a deceptively easy question of course. The easy answer is to say that it simply needs to be something that either matters to people or impacts their lives significantly. But what if the problem should matter to people and does impact their lives significantly and they still don't seem to want to do anything about it?

The real danger is that it begins to pull down your own level of motivation and caring which is critical to your own success in your career and life.

Which then brings up the real question I suppose: How do you sustain your own motivation and caring in the face of vast indifference?