An example I use often to explain this hard wiring we all have in us is the act of being inherently uneasy in the dark. Most people are, at least a little bit, more uneasy in the dark than in the light. Why? Our biological wiring increases anxiety when light isn't present, because when things got dark for our ancestors they were at a much higher risk of becoming someone else's dinner. After the sun set, being on high alert was a necessary survival mechanism. Evolution of a species moves at very slow rate. Industrialization, however, progresses exponentially, so it's important to be able to identify where these hard wirings can help explain basic human behaviors we may not necessarily need, but still have, due to the fact that they were of necessity to our ancestors.
I'll give one more example. Robb Wolff, author of Wired to Eat, does a better job of linking the tenets of evolutionary biology to the way we eat better than anyone I've ever read. He suggests that we are all hard wired to eat things that are of the highest caloric density whenever they are available and then rest as much as possible immediately after we've filled our bellies. Sound familiar? It's the way most Americans eat today and a huge reason why we have an obesity epidemic on our hands. Again, industrialization has outpaced our evolution. The hard wiring in our brains hasn't evolved to understand that there is a grocery store less than a mile down the road where we can get our hands on just about anything we want at any time. It still governs you as if you hunted down and killed that meal and have no way of anticipating when you'll get your next meal. The survival mechanism wired into you as a result is to conserve as much energy as possible until you'll feed again.
There's good news, though. We can reason with this hard wiring using the more malleable parts of our brain and discipline ourselves to not fall victim to these innate responses. This is why, as most of us get older, we learn to convince ourselves not to fear darkness and discipline ourselves not to eat junk food whenever it's in front of us.
I opened this blog discussing the tenets of evolutionary biology because I think it can help us, as coaches or employers, utilize tactics that will allow us reach most everyone. If we can understand the way human behavior is hard wired into us all, we can better understand what it is people need from us, and engage in practices that allows both parties to win.
In coaching circles we have a knack for giving names to things that are already heavily researched in the scientific literature under different terminology. One of these terms that is used in almost all coaching circles is "buy-in." Coaches around the world are constantly searching for what it takes to get every individual they recruit or inherit to "buy-in" to the principles and practices of their program. My opinion is that "buy-in" is just a term coaches use to refer to the principles of adherence and motivation. If you search the term "buy-in" in your campus' online library you may not find much, but if you search "adherence and motivation" you'll find that there is a plethora of scientific literature covering how we can better understand "buy-in" by better understanding hard-wired, basic human needs.
One of the most widely accepted theories of adherence and motivation is the self-determination theory (SDT) originally constructed and proposed by Deci and Ryan (1985). The SDT suggests that individuals are motivated to pursue high levels of mastery in any endeavor by two means. These means are intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivations. Our goal should be to get the individuals we work with (athletes or employees) as intrinsically motivated as possible, because research shows that it is the longest lasting and most enduring form of motivation. The simplest way I can define someone who is intrinsically motivated is someone who does something simply because they are madly in love or with it or genuinely curious about how it works. These people are drawn to tasks because of their interest and drive to master the task itself and not the things that becoming competent at the task can provide them.
Extrinsic motivations aren't worthless. They just aren't as enduring and can't be relied on to create genuine forms of adherence and motivation. Examples of extrinsic motivation are public perceptions, awards and accolades, verbal approval from prominent figures, financial compensations, etc. This is why we intuitively understand that people who pursue money, fame, and attention typically burn out while those who are obsessed with the process and do their work because they love it typically have longer, more successful, and enduring careers.
Ok, so if intrinsic motivation is the holy grail of buy-in, how do we use what we know about how all people are hard wired to get them more intrinsically motivated? Deci and Ryan (1985) suggest that we can do this by catering to three hard-wired basic human needs: autonomy, perceived competence, and relatedness. I believe in these three concepts so much that I've made them a staple of all my presentations to any recruits that come onto our campus and I make a conscious effort to manage my employees and coach my athletes by them. I'll explain in the next three paragraphs what each of these concepts are and how we can use them to improve adherence and motivation with the people we work with.
Autonomy
Autonomy is a hard wired human need for self-governance and independence. People NEED to be given freedoms to pursue their goals in their own way. As coaches and employers, we often feel like we're the experts in our field, so things have to be done the way we've learned to do them. This often leads to micromanagement and black and white rules or restrictions that end up de-motivating the people we've been tasked with leading. The best thing about becoming radically open-minded about the many different ways tasks can be completed and goals can be achieved is that you open yourself up to new learning opportunities on a daily basis. As an employer I've learned that the best way to lead my people is to explain to them what the task at hand is or the goal to be achieved and then step back and give them the freedom to do their thing the best way they know how. If the end result isn't in parallel with our expectations, we re-visit the method they're employing and make minor adjustments for it to better fit our vision. This has allowed me to learn new ways of doing things and made them feel like they have the freedom to explore their own development and come up with more effective means of helping the people they work directly with. As a strength and conditioning coach, I provide autonomy to my athletes by providing them with programming that I believe best incorporates the most efficacious exercise science literature I'm aware of, but allow them to make small tweaks to the programming to better fit what they believe allows them to make progress as an individual. The old school strength and conditioning coach may step into my weight room and see chaos and disorder, but I see autonomy and a conglomerate of individuals in pursuit of mastery. Adults want to be treated like adults, not children. I strive for adherence and motivation with my people, not obedience. If you're the type of person that needs someone to drive obedience into you, you don't fit my culture anyway, so I'd rather not engage.
Perceived Competence
Perceived competence is simply how competent one perceives themselves to be in any endeavor (duh). Scientific literature shows that the most powerful means of developing this trait is something referred to as "mastery experience." This simply means that the people we work with have to have experiences in the domains that they care most about that lead them to believe they are becoming more competent. This is why it's so important for us to not only become competent professionals ourselves, but also work to understand what it is that is important to the people we work with. Employees want to have access to the tools and education they need to do their job well. If we're able to deliver that to them they will perceive themselves and more competent and subsequently become more motivated to their job well. As employers, therefore, our focus shouldn't be to make sure our employees are doing things OUR way, but to make sure our people have everything they need to do the best job possible in the best way they know how and have access to education to continue improving. As a strength coach, this means I have to find ways to help my athletes improve at their sport of choice, not just at lifting weights. I have to find a way to utilize the weight room in a manner that provides athletes with more mastery experiences when they go to compete. Having mastery experiences in the weight room will likely be helpful, but if you're working with a basketball player, it's probably best that your methods are focused on providing them with mastery experiences on the basketball court rather than on the platform. This will ultimately motivate them to keep coming back to work with you.
Relatedness
Relatedness refers to the basic human need for connection. As human beings we need to feel like we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and are working in concert with others to achieve a common goal. When we feel connected to a larger group, and feel like we have the support of that group and its leaders, we become more motivated to do well. My opinion is that this is the most important component of achieving buy in with our employees and athletes, but also the most difficult. It requires that you care. Not that you put forth demonstrations to show them you care, but that you GENUINELY CARE. It can't be faked and it can't be systematically implemented. Team building activities and organizing events to create a family like atmosphere can help, but none of it will last if you don't genuinely care about the well-being and emotional state of those you are in a position to lead. This takes time and effort, which is what makes it so challenging. These aren't a luxury we all have a lot of, but making a point to ask those you lead how they are doing and if there is anything you can do to help goes a long way to making them feel connected. Understanding that everyone you work with perceives things differently, acts differently, has different things that make them tick, and needs for individuality is incredibly important. It's hard, but incredibly important.
Closing
I'm hoping that if you read this far you learned something about what the scientific literature says about getting buy-in from the people you lead. Giving them some more freedom and allowing them to have a say in the way things are done is difficult for some, but it's incredibly important if achieving long-lasting adherence and motivation is the goal. The more liberties we give those we lead in concert with our professional guidance, the better they'll become at what they do and the more they'll perceive themselves as competent at what they do. Reminding them and making them feel like they are an important part of something that matters should be a done DAILY. Being supported and connected creates incredibly loyal and highly motivated people and these kinds of people are the ones who ultimately achieve great things. How you incorporate these three things is entirely up to you. I don't micromanage :), but I can tell you that they are important.
As always, thank you for reading.
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