Consolidating Gains

During one of our recent monthly plant meetings, a team member asked if anyone was interested in holding a “Biggest Loser” competition. The competition would be based on the hit TV show, “Biggest Loser”. On the show, contestants compete to see who can lose the most weight. The contestants’ performance is gauged by a weekly weigh in. To motivate the participants there are weekly rewards given to the contestants who have lost the most weight, and there is a large cash prize given to the participant who loses the most weight by the end of the entire competition.

From the reaction of many of the people in our monthly plant meeting, I would have to say that there was quite a bit of excitement around holding a Biggest Loser competition. Personally, I think the idea of holding a “Biggest Loser” competition is a great idea. Furthermore, the idea of holding this competition made me wonder; “how does a competition like this, motivate individuals in their pursuit of achieving a long-term goal, such as losing weight?” Are there certain elements of the “Biggest Loser” competition, which help motivate individuals as they work towards their weight loss goal?

Closer analysis reveals that the “Biggest Loser” competition has the following key elements:

1. A goal that is meaningful to the participants.
2. The longer-term goal is broken up into smaller, weekly goals.
3. Each participant’s performance is easy to gauge and track.
4. The rewards for reaching the short and long-term goals are clearly
communicated.

The process of achieving challenging, long-term goals is greatly assisted through the establishment of shorter term goals, which are easy to gauge and track. As we achieve these short-term goals, we consolidate our gains, and this gives us the motivation to continue moving toward our longer term goal.

We can apply the lessons learned from the “Biggest Loser” competition to our jobs. To get started, ask yourself the following questions?

1. Does my department have clear, meaningful goals?
2. Are our long-term goals broken up into shorter term goals?
3. Are the goals communicated to all team members?
4. Do I know what the rewards are for achieving these goals?
5. How engaged am I in helping our team achieve its goals?

If you don’t like your answers to the above questions, talk to your manager. Together we can achieve more.

Get engaged, consolidate the gains, achieve the goals.

I’d love to know your thoughts. tony@repowell.net

Tony

www.repowell.net