SHOW VIDEO OF LIGHT UP ROTARY INTRO SLIDE District Governor Ken, Past District Governors, DGN Jane, DGND Stephen, Assistant Governors and Fellow Rotarians, 2 LIGHT UP ROTARY President Elect Gary Huang has fired us up to “Light Up Rotary” in this coming Rotary year. As I said to the Presidents Elect at Multi District PETS, for me, this is a very exciting and challenging theme because it works on so many levels - for individuals, groups, communities and indeed the planet. I think “it works” because the idea of “lighting up” is such an engaging and archetypal human theme - we’ve all been talking and thinking about “lighting up” ever since our ancestors looked at the sun or discovered fire. The Literature, of all cultures in all ages has continually made reference this concept - President Elect Gary referred to Confucius, around 450 BC, challenging us to start lighting up candles in the darkness, and 2500 years later, in 1980, James Reyne made reference to the boys “lighting up” in the Australian Crawl song - although I do believe they had different things on their minds! Anyway, the idea of lighting up and related symbols of fire, the sun, stars, lanterns, light bulbs, spot lights, candles and bombs has been linked with such ideas as motivation, inspiration, human passion, providing warmth, discovering new ideas, showing the way, putting things on display, getting rid of darkness and even putting a bomb under things that are stuck or in the way, and all of those could have some reference to Rotary clubs at some time or other. 3. - MOTIVATION However, today, as we gather together to explore ways we can be more effective as Rotarians in our Rotary district, I wanted to focus on just one of those ideas - the idea of motivating ourselves or igniting our passion as Rotarians
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Using Apter's Theory of Motivation as a way to Enthuse Rotarians to Light Up Rotary
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SHOW VIDEO OF LIGHT UP ROTARY
INTRO SLIDE
District Governor Ken, Past District Governors, DGN Jane, DGND Stephen,
Assistant Governors and Fellow Rotarians,
2 LIGHT UP ROTARY
President Elect Gary Huang has fired us up to “Light Up Rotary” in this coming
Rotary year.
As I said to the Presidents Elect at Multi District PETS, for me, this is a very
exciting and challenging theme because it works on so many levels - for
individuals, groups, communities and indeed the planet.
I think “it works” because the idea of “lighting up” is such an engaging and
archetypal human theme - we’ve all been talking and thinking about “lighting
up” ever since our ancestors looked at the sun or discovered fire.
The Literature, of all cultures in all ages has continually made reference this
concept - President Elect Gary referred to Confucius, around 450 BC,
challenging us to start lighting up candles in the darkness, and 2500 years later,
in 1980, James Reyne made reference to the boys “lighting up” in the
Australian Crawl song - although I do believe they had different things on their
minds!
Anyway, the idea of lighting up and related symbols of fire, the sun, stars,
lanterns, light bulbs, spot lights, candles and bombs has been linked with such
ideas as motivation, inspiration, human passion, providing warmth, discovering
new ideas, showing the way, putting things on display, getting rid of darkness
and even putting a bomb under things that are stuck or in the way, and all of
those could have some reference to Rotary clubs at some time or other.
3. - MOTIVATION
However, today, as we gather together to explore ways we can be more
effective as Rotarians in our Rotary district, I wanted to focus on just one of
those ideas - the idea of motivating ourselves or igniting our passion as
Rotarians
To Light up Rotary is to motivate Rotary - particularly to ignite or re-kindle
passion in Rotarians, which will, when a critical mass is reached, re-ignite or
motivate Rotary Clubs and a motivated Rotary club will light up or make a
difference in their communities. So how do we rekindle and maintain our level
of motivation or passion as Rotarians? How do we light up Rotary?
4. - MICHAEL APTER
There have been many researchers look into the topic of human motivation,
but one of the most respected is Dr. Michael Apter who is mainly responsible
for developing the “Reversal” theory of motivation in the 1970’s. I want to
share a very quick overview of the theory to set a context, although it’s not
necessary to fully understand this at this stage. If you want to know more
about reversal theory, simply put those words into Google and there are some
excellent tutorials and videos available. This theory suggests that humans
experience different states of motivation in four domains or categories of life,
and in each of these four categories, at any particular moment, we feel drawn
to one of two human needs. The theory gets its title from the suggestion that
when we get bored, or frustrated with one need, we start desiring the
opposite need – our direction of motivation reverses. Here are Apter’s four
domains and the pair of needs in each:
5. FOUR DOMAINS
1. In the “Means-ends” domain, we either feel a need for achievement and to
get serious about future goals, or feel a need for fun and want to be playful
2. In the “Rules” domain, we either feel a need to “fit in” and feel part of the
group and follow the rules, so we feel motivated to conform, or we feel a
need for freedom and we feel like challenging the rules or changing the way
we do things and innovating.
3. In the “Transactions” domain, we either feel a need for mastery or to get
things right and act competitively, or we feel a need for care and compassion
and act affectionately.
4. In the “Relationships” domain, we either feel a need for personal wholeness
and feel self-oriented, or we feel a need for altruism and feel other-people
oriented.
According to Apter, we are feeling motivated towards one extreme in each of
these domains at every moment throughout the day. We are probably only
conscious of our needs in one or maybe two domains at a time, but they are all
at work to some extent.
Now I reckon this stuff has lots of implications for Rotary Clubs and we can
make use of this theory to keep ourselves motivated, to keep our clubs
motivated and enable us all to light up Rotary in the coming year.
The first general implication is that it’s good for us to realize that as individuals,
our periodical bouts of frustration and boredom are absolutely human and
natural - but, instead of blaming Rotary, or opting out as some do, we can start
looking for ways to meet our opposite need or move into the opposite state.
e.g. if we tire of seriously going after our goals, it’s time we had some fun.
The second general implication is that clubs shouldn’t over react when
members lose interest and want a break - we need to give them that space,
but make sure we have those eight states on offer as part of our total club
package, so members can get involved in a different way.
So let’s briefly look at those eight areas and some of the things we can do to
light up or motivate ourselves, our clubs, and Rotary in general.
6 - GOALS
In the means-ends category, our clubs need to have some serious, clear goals
in all of the areas in which they plan to achieve. Those goals need to be
developed and owned by the members, and ideally, the goals need to be on
display at every meeting, on the web site, in facebook, in the newsletter so
members can periodically remind themselves of where the club is heading. It
would be good if one member could remind the club of the progress the club is
making in each of their achievement areas, and every year, it’s good practice
for the club to set aside a time to review their goals and tweak them, and
maybe every few years, set a new set of goals. The club visioning program is a
great way of doing all of this, and we have a number of people in our district
who could assist. This process will meet the needs of those members who are
in the state seriously achieving and will help to boost the motivation of all
members in the club.
7 - FUN
So that’s one end of the means-end domain - the other end is fun. Our club
experience needs to have lots of fun, and fun of all types. Some clubs think
they’re having fun by having a joke on the newsletter or a joke in the meeting.
That’s fine, but how about periodical meetings set aside for fun events - either
visits to places or in house events. It’s important that a team of people develop
these fun events, too, because different members will have different tastes in
fun. Some like it bawdy, some like it active, some passive, some like music,
some like to dance, some like games, some like dressing up, some like chatting
around a bar, some like it structured, some don’t. Have a variety, so everyone
has some enjoyment some of the time. Ask your members individually to say
what constitutes a fun event for them. Review the fun events you have and
find out things that work well and have more of them. A fun meeting is a
motivational meeting and in its own way, a way of furthering the work of, and
lighting up Rotary.
8 - TEAM BUILDING
If we consider the Rules domain, it would follow that we need times where our
clubs do things together as a team, and times where we participate together in
ceremonies and rituals. Developing a team identity can be highly motivating
and all of us who have even been in a team will know that great feeling you
have the first time you parade together in your team uniform. Some of our
clubs are doing a great job at this like the Alfredton club which has used it’s
purple colours as a way of building identity. I reckon it would great for all our
clubs to own a couple of colours, or develop a mascot or a symbol for their
club and parade it at District Conference, District assembly, in their local
community - anywhere to build a motivating sense of being a team. It would
be good for clubs to think about what is special and unique about their
particular club and use that as a subtitle to their name, put it on social media.
Our club president talks about our “Signature activity” for this year. I can