Motivating People

Mekeni Food Corporation partners with OSA for their 2023 Leadership Team Building and Development Program

Bataan, Philippines – Mekeni Food Corporation partnered with OSA Training and Education to conduct their Sales Rally and Team Development Programs. Conducted on April 19, 2023, at the La Jolla Luxury Resort, MFC’s Executive Team, senior and team leaders attended the event, which was facilitated by OSA’s Chief Learning Architect, Orly S. Agawin, and was co-facilitated by Gem T. Manalansang, Gege Cruz-Sugue, Joanna Katrina Magalong and Iris Samson.

The OSA team designed, prepared, and moderated exercises that encouraged Mekeni leaders, stakeholders, and team members to share their experiences and insights, creating a space for open dialogue and fostering a sense of community within respective groups. Through these activities, participants identified behaviors promoting inclusiveness, support for others, creativity and innovation, collaboration, and working towards one strategy.

The facilitators’ expertise and guidance proved invaluable as the participants gained newfound knowledge and skills, allowing them to work together more cohesively and productively than ever before.

Gem T. Manalansang, OSA’s Senior Learning Architect, said, “Our team was honored to work with Mekeni Food Corporation to help them achieve their sales and team development goals. We designed activities that were tailored to the specific needs of the group, and we were thrilled to see the participants engage with each other and gain new insights.”

Mekeni Food Corporation is one of the leading food manufacturers in the Philippines, providing quality products such as sausages, hotdogs, and other processed meat products. By partnering with OSA Training and Education, Mekeni Food Corporation is taking steps to strengthen its team and improve its sales strategies, ultimately aiming to provide even better products and services to its customers.

April 24, 2023/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Motivating People, News

OSA leads ASCEI’s 2023 Team Building Exercise

Aklan, Philippines – Leaders, team members and partners from Ant Savvy Creatives and Entertainment, Inc. attended a teambuilding event on March 28, 2023, at the Savoy Hotel, Boracay to optimize cross-functional teams through collaboration and interdependence. The event’s objectives were to build trust among and across teams, apply collaborative communications in daily interactions, achieve shared goals by sharing information and ideas, encourage cross-functional interdependence, and establish ownership and accountability.

Team members engaged in various activities to achieve these objectives, such as effective feedback sessions, brainstorming, and establishing group processes. The event encouraged cooperation, teamwork, trust, and interdependence among team members.

The event also promoted psychological safety within and among teams by creating an inclusive, safe space for participants. By establishing a clear and safe communication channel, participants were encouraged to provide feedback and clarity of communication within and among teams.

The 2-day exercise gave participants a deeper understanding of the importance of cross-functional teams and how they can work collaboratively through culture building, and psychological safety while achieving shared organizational goals.

March 31, 2023/by Orly S. Agawin

Case Studies, Leadership, Lockdown Online Learning Series, Motivating People

Protected: CASE STUDY: Maintaining Accountability in Virtual Teams

June 3, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Lockdown Online Learning Series, Motivating People

LOCKDOWN ONLINE LEARNING SESSIONS # 2: Managing and Influencing Virtual Teams

April 13, 2020, 3:00pm to 4:30pm

and 8:00pm to 9:30pm via Zoom.us

COURSE OVERVIEW

Probably by now, we have realized how the virtual workplace differs so greatly from a face-to-face work environment. As most of us abruptly transition to more remote working conditions, newer challenges in communications, capabilities and resources arise.

And with the recent COVID-19 Outbreak, we have witnessed the sudden shift of the workforce to a more remote, and virtual environments/capabilities.

But are our managers and leaders ready to transition in such a, relatively new, environment? Are our team members prepared to continue delivering outputs and pushing for results that will ensure achievements of our business goals?

OSA Training and Education’s Framework for LEADING VIRTUAL TEAMS Series

Jumping off from OSA Training and Education’s LEADING VIRTUAL TEAMS SERIES, this 1.5-hour FREE ONLINE WEBINAR on MANAGING AND INFLUENCING VIRTUAL TEAMS tackles how managers, team leaders and supervisors can still maximize their team’s full potential, despite working in remote locations and time zones.

This webinar offers time-tested techniques in virtual team communications, setting of expectations, giving instructions and follow-up, which you can immediately apply in your own virtual teams. By adopting these techniques, leaders can utilize their efficiency in still making virtual teams and environments up to par with previous face-to-face interactions.

METHOD

The 1-hour webinar will use the Zoom Classroom Technology. Participants will have to install the Zoom app to watch, listen and participate. Interactions and sharing of insights will be very much encouraged.

CLASS SIZE AND CLASS SCHEDULES

To ensure interactivity and trainee focus, this Online Session shall only be limited to a manageable class size per session.

Due to high volume of registrations, we are opening two (2) classes on April 14, 2020 to accommodate more participants. You may choose which class you wish to join through the online registration form provided below.

MEET THE SPEAKER

ORLY S. AGAWIN has more than 25 years of experience in Learning and Development. A teacher by profession, Orly was part of the academe where he established various programs on skills and capabilities development. He soon transitioned to the BPO industry, spanning more than 15 years in Quality, Service Delivery, and Learning & Development. Through his BPO experience, Orly has developed leadership and management skills in handling virtual teams across multiple sites. His passion Learning and Development was soon recognized by the Philippines Society for Training and Development in 2010 when he was awarded with the BPO Excellence Award for Training Management.

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April 7, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Lockdown Online Learning Series, Motivating People

LEADERSHIP: Building a Virtual Team Culture

The challenge for managers of multi-cultural teams is to build an atmosphere of camaraderie, mutual respect, effective communication, and productivity despite differing worldviews and physical environments. In essence, as a manager or team leader, you must take a disparate group of people and cultures, and developing culture that is a culmination of the best of each culture and strength but the individual team members bring with them.

Leaders can facilitate building a team culture by doing the following:

Providing Resources for periodic one-on-one meetings.

If the project is going to last for more than a year or is highly complex, budget for periodic one-on-one meetings For at least the functional leads. In addition, the project manager should plan to visit each of the other locations at least once during the project.

Facilitate an open discussion about being expectations.

During the initial meeting, after some teambuilding time, ask team members what kind of team they want to be and what they want the work environment to be like. This helps identify what the team member expects from themselves, each other, and you. Encourage team members to speak freely by using active listening and by incorporating suggestions into the team guidelines.

Be explicit with rules and expectations.

One challenge to working with other cultures is that the rules are generally implicit; that is, “everyone knows to do X, not Y.” however, in multicultural teams, behavior X might not be the same in situations why for everyone. For example, the importance of being on time varies from culture to culture, as do many other aspects of doing business. Making these expectations explicit in the beginning helps to alleviate potential conflicts.

Encourage social interactions.

People tend to be more productive when they feel a connection to their teammates. Fun, social interaction builds that connection and encourages proactive communication with other team members. Such interactions can range from checking in at the beginning of a meeting to an offsite team-building event. Be creative. One team we know, always collected souvenirs when traveling and send them to team members.

Be proactive.

The biggest complaint in post-project evaluations is communication. It is impossible to over-communicate. Follow conversations with an email summarizing agreements and action items, and ask recipients to confirm his or her understanding. Identify potential challenges and opportunities, and plan as a team for the possibilities. Check-in regularly with the team because they do so helps maintain the team connection and keeps remote team members from feeling isolated. Random acts of kindness for members of the team will also help.

Recognize both team and individual efforts.

Recognizing a job well done is an important aspect of team leadership. It is important to provide recognition thoughtfully and carefully. The old adage “to praise in public, chastise in private,” becomes more important in virtual and multicultural teams. Be sure, when you recognize the efforts, that you shouldn’t leave everyone who participated in the activity for which the reward is being given. Leaving someone out even inadvertently will cause more problems than not giving recognition at all. Be careful how you recognize individual team members. You do not want to set up a competition between members. Whatever you do, do not cost one of your team members to lose face, especially in a public situation. If you have an issue with someone, discuss it privately, as you would do in a co-located space.

Provide a centralized collaboration tool for the team.

Place team-related projects and communications in a single collaboration/communication tool for everyone to access and interact. This will establish a common virtual space for everyone in the team.

March 25, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Motivating People, Personal, Training Programs

TRAINING PROGRAM: Storytelling For Business

March 4, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Motivating People, Pro Elevate

Why Job Security, Holidays and Benefits Aren’t Good Enough

One noted behavioral scientist, Frederick Herzberg, in his 2-Factor Motivation Theory (1959) made a distinction between job dissatisfaction and satisfaction.

He argues that Satisfaction for an employee comes from truly motivating factors such as interesting and challenging work, utilization of one’s capabilities, opportunity to do something meaningful, recognition of achievements, and responsibility for one’s own work.

Dissatisfaction occurs when the following factors are not present on the job: good pay, adequate holidays, long enough vacations, paid insurance and pensions, Good working conditions, and congenial people to work with.

Herzberg’s 2-Factor Motivation Theory

Herzberg bases these definitions on what is now known as the 2-Factor or the Motivation-Hygiene Theory. He says that every human being has two motivational tracks: (1) a low-level aspect, which is animal in nature and bent only on surviving, and (2) a higher-level aspect, uniquely human and directed toward adjusting to oneself.

Herzberg labels the first set of motivations hygiene or maintenance, factors. We need to satisfy them, he reasons, to keep alive people try to avoid pain and unpleasantness in life; they do the same on the job.

The satisfaction of these needs provides only hygiene for people. These factors physically maintain the status quo, but they do not motivate. If they are not present in the workplace, an employee will be dissatisfied and we look for a job elsewhere that provides these factors. But the employee will not work harder just because these factors are given to him or her. Said another way, A general pay increase may keep employees from quitting but it will rarely motivate an employee to work harder.

So how can supervisors provide the kind of satisfaction that motivates team members?

Herzberg feels that those job factors that provide genuine and positive motivation should be called satisfiers (motivators).

Without splitting hairs, we can see that generally, the company must provide the factors that prevent dissatisfaction. The supervisor tends to provide the factors that satisfy. Few supervisors can establish the basic periods for the organization.

Yet, almost all supervisors can motivate. For example, the supervisor can provide an employee with a specific, challenging goal: “Not many people can pack more than 200 cartons an hour. If you can pack 220 today, you will be a great asset to this Department.”

Similarly, a supervisor can let an employee know that the work he or she is doing is appreciated: “My manager asked me today who it was that prepared these urgent reports. I was pleased to tell her that you did!”

A leader can also help to make work more interesting by making suggestions, such as, “Why don’t we take 15 minutes later this afternoon to see whether we can find a way to break the monotony in your job?”

Finally, leaders can always extend responsibility by saying to an employee, “Beginning today you will make the decision as to whether off-grade products should be reworked or thrown away? If you make an occasional mistake, don’t worry about it in that area your judgment is every bit as good as mine.”

By looking at Herzberg’s theory of motivating people, leaders will be able to know how to effectively connect, build relationships and encourage their people to give their best in the workplace.

As we realize that maintenance factors such as benefits, security, working conditions and a fairly good pay can only do so much, we can maximize motivation and ultimately, performance, by having our team members explore their uniquely human needs to achieve greater through involvement, appreciation, and sense of importance in the workplace.

REFERENCES
Herzberg, Frederick; Mausner, Bernard; Snyderman, Barbara B. (1959). The Motivation to Work 
(2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley.
Herzberg, Frederick (January–February 1964). "The Motivation-Hygiene Concept and Problems 
of Manpower". Personnel Administration (27): 3–7.
Hines, George H. (December 1973). "Cross-cultural differences in two-factor motivation 
theory". Journal of Applied Psychology.

February 27, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Motivating People, Pro Elevate

MOTIVATING PEOPLE | What People Want from Life and Work

Most of us, including our team members and peers, seek satisfaction from life in relation to what Abraham Maslow called the “five basic needs.” And we seek a good part of this satisfaction at our work. Maslow outlined these basic needs, and we’ll try to explain these needs as conceived from his hierarchy, with the most compelling ones coming first and the more sophisticated later.

We Need to Be Alive and to Stay Alive

We need to breathe, eat, sleep, reproduce, see, hear, and feel. But in today’s world, these needs rarely dominate us. Real hunger – for example – is rare in most societies. All in all, our first level needs are satisfied. Only an occasional experience – a couple of days without sleep, a day on a diet without carbs or sugar, a frantic 30 seconds underwater – reminds us that these basic needs are still within us.

We Need To Feel Safe

We like to feel that we are safe from accident or pain; from competitors or criminals, from an uncertain future or a changing present. Not one of us ever feels completely safe. Yet most of us feel reasonably safe. After all, we have laws, police, insurance, social security, employment contracts, etc. to protect us.

We Need to be Social

From the beginning of time, we have lived together in tribes and family groups. Today, these group ties are stronger than ever. We marry, join clubs and even pray in groups. The social need varies widely from person to person – just as other needs do. Few of us want to be hermits. Not everyone, of course, is capable of frank and deep relationships – even with a wife or husband and close friends. But, to a greater or lesser degree, this social need operates in all of us.

We Need to Feel Worthy and Respected

When we talk about our self-respect or our dignity, this is the need we are expressing. When a person is not completely adjusted to life, this need may show itself as undue pride in achievements, self-importance, boastfulness – a bloated ego.

But so many of our other needs are so easily satisfied in the modern world that this need often becomes one of the most demanding. Look what we go through to satisfy the need to think well of ourselves – and have others do likewise. When a wife insists her husband wears a jacket to a party, she’s expressing this need. When we buy a new car even though the old one is in good shape,l we’re giving way to our desire to show ourselves off, paired with the need to validate our achievements and status.

We even modify our personalities to get the esteem of others. No doubt you’ve put on your company manners when you represent the organization. It’s natural, we say, to act more refined in public than at home – or to cover up our less acceptable traits.

We Need to Do the Work We Like

This is why many people who don’t like their jobs turn to hobbies for expression, and why so many people get wrapped up in their work. We all know men and women who the hard burden of laboring work, or workers in a manufacturing plant who hurry from work to run their own lathes or bored terminal operators who stay up late in their own homes doing lifelong hobbies.

This need rarely is the be-all and end-all of our lives. But there are very few of us who are not influenced by it.

In the United States in the 1960s and early 70s, many young people dropped out of society to set out to do their own thing. This was largely an expression of the desire to fulfill oneself – the need for Self-Actualization.

So which of these needs is the most powerful? We say, the ones that have not yet been satisfied.

Maslow’s greatest insight was the realization that once a need is satisfied, it will no longer motivate a person to greater effort. If a person has what is required in the way of job security, for example, offering more of it – such as guaranteeing employment for the next five years – will normally not cause a person to work harder.

The leader who wishes to see greater effort generated will have to move to an unsatisfied need, such as the desire to be with the other people on the job, if this employee is to be expected to work harder as a result.

***

Having explored Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs once again emphasizes the importance of how leaders should be vastly aware of their people’s motivation. With the undying question on motivating our team members, leaders can utilize this awareness and embrace such needs – both of their own and of their people.

February 20, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin

Leadership, Motivating People

The Persistence of Individuality in the Workplace

Why don’t employees act the way you wish they would? The answer will take a long time. But if what you are really asking is, “why do people act in such unpredictable ways?” the answer is simple: People do as they must. Their actions, which may look irrational to someone who doesn’t understand them, are in reality very logical.

If you could peer into people’s backgrounds and into their emotional makeup, you’d be able to predict with startling accuracy how one person would react to criticism or how another person would act when told to change over to the second shift.

Like a dog who’s been scratched by a cat steers clear away from all cats. Employees who have learned from a manager that the only time they are treated as human beings is when the workload is going to be increased will be on the defensive or cautious when a new boss tries to be friendly. To the new leader, such team members’ actions may look absurd, but for them, it’s the only logical thing to do.

People behave differently because of their uniquely different backgrounds and personalities.

So as it goes, each person is the product of parents, home, education, culture, social life, and work experiences. Consequently, when leaders deal with their team members, they are dealing with people who have brought all their previous experiences to the job.

Thus, each person is different. Each is a distinct individual. In detail, one’s reactions will be different from anyone else’s. But to understand human relations, we must first know why people do things before you can predict what they will do.

Say for example that Marvin dislikes his job because it requires a certain level of concentration, you can make a considerable guess that you will find more resistance from him when you offer another job that requires more complex tasks. Or if Jane, who is known to be a great people-person, a leader can predict that it will hard for her to take on roles in an isolated area.

The important tool in dealing with people is the recognition that although what they do is likely to differ, the underlying reasons for their doing anything are very similar. These reasons are called motives or needs.

So what determines personality? Well, just about anything. An individual’s personality cannot be pigeonholed as pleasant or outgoing or friendly or ill-tempered or suspicious or defensive. An individual’s personality is the total of what the person is today.

Each person’s personality is uniquely different from anyone else’s. It results from his/her own nature and nurture like schooling or lack of it, neighbors, peers, work and play experiences, parents’ influences, religion, etc.

From these influences, people learn to shape their individuality in a way that enables them to cope with life’s encounters, with work, with living together, with age, with success and failure. As a result, personality is the total expression of the unique way in which each individual deals with life.

Having laid down these facts about individualities and varying personalities in the workplace, leaders need to learn how to effectively delve deeper into each of their team member’s motives and wants. They may vary depending on each’s personalities and preferences, but as soon as the leader identifies and embraces these aspects and aligns motivations with his/her people, motivation follows.

References:
Giuliani, R. W., & Kurson, K. (2007). Leadership. London: Sphere.
Littauer, F., & Sweet, R. (2011). Personality plus at work: how to work successfully with anyone. 
Grand Rapids, MI: Revell.
Maslow, A. H., Stephens, D. C., & Heil, G. (1998). Maslow on management. New York: Wiley.

February 15, 2020/by Orly S. Agawin