Motivational Splash

Reading USA Today, that ubiquitous hotel newspaper, is one of my vacation luxuries. I go straight for the Life section while my husband grabs the Sports. Then we trade and work our way through the rest. Some hotels bring USA Today right to the door; not so with this Holiday Inn Express (where you pick it up from the desk), so it was over breakfast that I found myself thinking about – what else . . . . work, and pumped by a new way of looking at a perennial challenge, staff motivation.

The article in the August 21st edition is also online “Training Workers the SeaWorld Way.” It features an interview with SeaWorld and Busch Gardens animal trainer, Julia Scardina (who is also one of my favorite guests on the Tonight Show.) Ms Scardina made the following points which I found particularly relevant to human relations and management. I even tried several of them on the 2 pint-sized people I’m spending vacation with, and they worked!

• Pay attention to good behavior
• Set the person up to succeed
• Reward a good displayed attitude even if task is not completed
• Not giving any attention is an effective form of discipline (no punishment)
• Keep positive environment
• Challenge animals or people to greater achievement and higher competency
• Provide immediate rewards or a communication bridge as a promise until reward is given
• If there are 4 whales in the pool and 3 of them did the right thing, give your attention to those 3 (and ignore the other one)