Thank You Dr. Maslow

Did you ever wonder why people always complain; why they're never satisfied? Way back in 1961 I heard something that was to answer that question and also had the effect of positively changing my entire outlook on life. The seven words I heard did more to help me achieve and understand people, success and happiness than any others I've heard, or read since then.

I'm told by thousands of seminar attendees, with whom I've constantly shared this sentence, that it is the most revealing statement they had ever heard. They continually thank me for sharing it with them.

Imagine seven simple words that reveal what really motivates behavior in people. Seven words that can give you a powerful control over any other human being. A small thought that can give you a greater understanding of yourself, of your success, and your happiness. Let me tell you about it.

I was an management trainee for Allendale Garment Company in Allendale, SC. I was invited to attend a meeting of the Lower South Carolina Management Association that was being held at the Westinghouse Plant in Hampton, SC.

The speaker was going to be Douglas McGregor, the distinguished professor of management in the School of Industrial Management at M.I.T. He was already known for his Theory X and Theory Y. He was doing consulting work for Westinghouse at the time and agreed to talk at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Association. The subject of his talk was "The Human Side of Enterprise," which coincidentally was the name of the book he had recently published.

It was at that meeting, during his lengthy speech, that I heard Professor McGregor nonchalantly remark, "A satisfied need no longer motivates behavior".

For whatever the reason, I underlined that thought in the notes I was taking. Something told me that the statement would be important to me. How right I was!

At the end of his talk, Professor McGregor entertained questions, and I asked if there were any books that could help me in my job as engineer trainee in a manufacturing environment. He questioned me about my job, the type of products we made, and some of my problems. Then he answered my question, "Any book written by Abraham Maslow would probably help you."

Up to that point I had never heard of Maslow, yet from then on I would never forget his name. Professor McGregor continued, "Dr. Maslow, incidentally, is responsible for the statement I made earlier, '"A satisfied need no longer motivates behavior" and if you find that interesting, you might find some of his other thoughts even more interesting."

When I read Maslow's work, I knew Professor McGregor was right. I found most of Maslow's thoughts to be directly applicable to my job. Even today, I cannot give a seminar or write anything, without using or referring to the theories or works of this great man. As I later learned, Maslow even inspired McGregor.

Let's take a minute now to review Maslow's theory, and then I'll show how his ideas can be put to work by you both on and off the job.

Essentially, Maslow presents a theory on the hierarchy of human needs. From the lowest to the highest there are five needs that, according to Maslow, all humans wish to satisfy. They are as follows:

2. Security: Freedom from arbitrary deprivation, familiar surroundings, and freedom from danger, safety.

3. Social: Desire for relationships with others, attention, love, understanding, and a sense of belonging.

4. Ego: Self-respect, self-esteem, esteem of others, recognition, increased control over own affairs, being in on things, status, respect, independence.

5. Self-Fulfillment: Meaningful existence, being all you can be; self-actualized, creativity, truth, aliveness, and perfection.

Since a satisfied need is not a motivator of behavior, it logically follows that an unsatisfied need will motivate a person's behavior. There's the answer to it all. We're never satisfied with what we have; we always want more. That's our nature; why fight it? We're not happy with what we have. What we don't have seemingly will make us happy people.

For example, when we're working, we want to retire. When we finally retire, we find it boring and wish we could go back to work. Employees vote in a union because they think a union will "straighten" things out. Very soon they find that the only thing a union does is collect dues from them and fine them for not attending meetings. We wish we had a new home, a bigger house. When we get it, we realize that the old one would have sufficed and complain about the new one because now we have more bathrooms to clean.

Here's how this knowledge of human motivation can be helpful to you in your day to day interactions with others . . .

To obtain the highly informative balance of this valuable, timely and authoritative paper there is a small recompense fee of $10.00 payable by credit card – using our secure server. Upon notification of your payment, the ENTIRE PAPER will be E-mailed to you.

CLICK HERE TO PAY ON-LINE USING OUR SECURE SERVER

Top of Page

CLICK HERE
TO REVIEW OUR PURCHASING POLICIES

CLICK HERE TO REVIEW OUR MANUAL THAT ADDRESSES THIS SUBJECT IN DEPTH

TO CONTACT US, CLICK HERE