FAHA: To motivate or to dissolve?

[EricH]

I see this in the spotlights sometimes: "I heard a Lou Holtz quote as an answer to the question of "how do you motivate the unmotivated". He said " You eliminate those who are not motivated."" (Credit to Scott Ritchie for putting the quote on the forum)

Now, let's take a look at this.

1) You have a bunch of kids sitting around doing nothing. Give them something to do. Maybe, just maybe, they'll think that that's cool.

2) If that fails, remind them of the requirement to have a CD account. Give them a short but reasonable amount of time to fulfill this. If they don't do it within the given time, they're out the door.

3) For the future: make a work requirement to go with the team to competitions. If you don't work x hours (and an adviser has to note that the students were actually working, even if it's just on homework that needs doing, or that nothing needed doing), you can't travel.

4) For the company funding: Cut it to event money (i.e., 1 event) , starting next year. Make it clear: if you guys won't work, the company doesn't have to help you do nothing. Work on the CA, the animation, the robot, anything, but work productively. If they can't take it, then the team will fold on its own. If they meet that challenge, and beat it, then consider raising the level of support from the company again after a couple of years.

5) Right now, nothing has been done, or so I gather. Take the parts and put them in front of all the team members. Say something like, "We've spent 3 weeks building this. We have three weeks left. Are you going to do something about this?"

These guys don't need pleading, begging, or something like that. You HAVE to act, firmly. I've noticed that if a bunch of people aren't motivated, or aren't doing something, punishing the worst ones will often get the result you want.