Why I Wrote the Book Mapping Motivation

It would be a great thing to be able to review one’s own book, in my case, Mapping Motivation,  but it would of course be entirely invalid; I am, as they say, biased! On the other hand, though, I can answer the question: why did you write this book? And there is a perfect storm of two opposite and contradictory reasons. One reason is altruistic, the good reason; and the other reason is entirely selfish! Let me explain.

My product, The Motivational Map, has been around since 2006, and I was developing it for at least five years before then. Indeed, developing ideas for it really go back to 1995 when I left education and struck out on my own as a coach and trainer. I studied in the evenings at Bournemouth University and achieved a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies (with Distinction) and so began a journey of learning: reading all I could, practising what I had learnt, finding masters and gurus who could show me more and emulating them where it fitted my style (and maybe sometimes when it didn’t!), and going on as many courses as I could to pack my mind with knowledge and skills that I could deploy. And over that time as we move towards 2006 and the launch of Motivational Maps I found increasingly that not only was I absorbing ideas from everywhere, especially America, the home really of personal development, but I was changing and transforming them. In short, Motivational Maps became not just a diagnostic tool, but around it I produced a whole load of intellectual property that was original and different: the tool kit that makes up the primary equipment of licensees of Motivational Maps.

This is where the altruism comes in: these ideas are so powerful and useful that it would be wrong to keep them tightly under wraps within the Motivational Maps system itself. On the contrary, they need to come out into the fresh air, be exposed to scrutiny, and given their strength, be used and adopted by people way beyond the Motivational Maps’ community. For example, I hope one day that the model of motivation that we use will become standard teaching in business and MBA courses across the world – and the book will cited as the source and authority for the teachings. I see myself the personality tests as Generation 1 of the diagnostic tools; the psychometrics as Generation 2; and of course the needs of the twenty-first century are different again, and so Motivational Maps are Generation 3 – they fit in with the new ethos of the new century, and in this in two important ways. First, the realisation that engagement is critical to organisational productivity, and that motivation is core to engagement. Second, and even more widely, the growing understanding, as for example demonstrated in Professor Gary Hamel’s brilliant book, The Future of Management, that top-down management, command and control, just doesn’t cut it anymore. We need a bottom-up approach and that is exactly what the most successful organisations have. And that is exactly what Motivational Maps makes possible: the Maps can only work with a bottom-up approach. Scary, or what? Yes, and deeply empowering too.

So much then for the altruism: sharing great ideas with the world so that we can improve how management and leadership works. But what about the selfishness? Ah – you have me there! I am writing the book because … I wish to demonstrate that I am pre-eminent in the field of motivation. To be more specific: not academically pre-eminent, but practically pre-eminent, usefully pre-eminent, not just jaw-jawing about motivation and writing one tome after another on the topic (contradicting that wise Sage of the Saharan Sub-Tropical University, my life long rival), but producing something that all the best people and organisations in the world start using to improve motivation, and so performance, productivity and ultimately profitability. Now that would be something, wouldn’t it?

Yes, it would, and I am not seeking either to be a star; in fact my own motivational profile puts public recognition pretty low on my driver list. No, the pre-eminence is a means to an end: I want to use the credibility that a book brings to build the Motivational Maps business and brand worldwide. Currently, we have over 240 licensees in 14 countries – we are scratching the surface of what we and the product could potentially do. Maybe that’s selfish, but it’s what I feel impelled to do.

So if you want to find out what this is all about then go to 

https://www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781472459275  -  Hope you enjoy the book – be sure to review it, and join the motivation revolution if it’s for you.

Comments

[Kamau]

Very Informative