The Enigma of Motivation

     The Enigma

     In a recent, Oscar nominated film, Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the legendary Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock, takes on the role of Cambridge mathematician Alan Turig, who was hired in 1939 by the British intelligence agency MI6, to break the Nazi Enigma code - which many cryptographers believed was unbreakable.

Source: www.cineblogit.com

"Enigma", itself, was not a code but an enciphering machine that the Germans used to send some of their most top secret messages.

Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code

What made the Enigma machine so formidable was that its constantly twirling rotors meant that the code needed to decipher the messages changed from day-to-day, and even message to message. These moving parts meant that the code was not generated using some sort of static, predictable alphabet, therefore, Turig and his colleagues had to create their own machine which would follow Enigma at every turn. What worked to decode one message was useless to understand another.

Mechanisms of Motivation

     For anyone trying to figure out the code that unlocks human motivation, the frustration mirrors to some degree what these British codebreakers experienced. Chapter 8, in a sense, describes the individual psychological "rotors" that, in an intricate, interconnected way, produce a message to the brain that makes a certain task a priority. From the classical motivational theories of Frederic Taylor, Elton Mayo, and B.F. Skinner, to the more recent speculations of Howard McClusky, Malcolm Knowles, Raymond Wlodkowski, Margery Ginsberg and others, the race has been on to solve the enigma that is human motivation. While one could argue that the fate of the world does not hang in the balance, the efficacy of political, economic, military, and educational policies may well be at stake..

     Educational Implications

     For me, as a teacher educator, the implications of motivational theory for the classroom are enormous. Policy makers have come to finally realize that external changes in the schoolhouse alone will not result in higher test scores. As Chapter 8 contends, extrinsic and intrinsic motivators - which are tied closely to societal, cultural, and family norms - spin together and create a specific yet transient code for action. As Alfie Kohn has made a career writing about in such books as Punished by Rewards, candy, trips to the class treasure chest, extra points, and other forms of bribery, though they might make a difference in the short term, have failed to motivate students in the long run. The ever-changing hierarchy of needs and constructs that are at work in the student mind do not lend themselves to surface level tinkering and are not decipherable on high-stakes, #2 pencil-driven tests. The rewards have to be constantly increased, like a drug, to achieve the same result. Of more concern to teachers is that their students develop a love of knowledge and its applications that is internal and self-generating - not bound by considerations of what reward will be in the offing. As Merriam and Bierema point out in Chapter 8, McClusky's Theory of Margin, for example, has specific relevancy for teachers (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, pg. 155). Much as a load bearing wall can only stand so much load, piling too much on a learner, particularly through a "traditional, authoritarian stance" that is indifferent to student opinion or experience, can bring the entire educational structure to the ground (Merriam & Bierema, 2014, pg. 155).

Motivation in the Workplace

     Beyond education, I see the implications of Chapter 8 extending into business and social institutions where those in charge of others are faced with "breaking the code" that will yield satisfied and highly productive workers. Like Alan Turig, we stand before the twirling cylinders of motivation trying to figure out the combinations. Regardless of what field we are engaged in, the task at hand is to be mindful of the personal, professional, and social variables at work within those we work with and train. Only then, can we have any hope of cracking the enigma of motivation.

Reference:

Merriam, S. & L. Bierema (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.