DIFFERENCES IN PEOPLE’S THINKING

What Motivates People Differently?

I have heard people say that all of us are different and unique. Others say we are all humans and therefore we are very much alike. What is this all about anyway? What are some facts?

Since part of my journey is to search for the facts, the idea of how we all look at things intrigued me which stimulated me to study neuroscience and find answers within my studies about human thinking and behavior. The most interesting idea about human thinking is explained in the area called language and behavior profiling. This area was a spinoff of the study of Neuro Linguistics over 40 years ago now. There was a researcher who developed the study of metaprograms named Roger Baily who developed a system to understand what motivates humans, and the name metaprograms was created. The name of this system became, ”Language and Behavior Profiles (LAB for short).”

Metaprograms are broken down into individual programs in the brain. His contention was that humans are motivated by factors that we all have developed as programs developed in early childhood by exposure to our families, our teachers, our friends, circumstances in our lives, and even our DNA. In this series I will present his ideas over a series of documents that will explain one meta program at a time. My intention in doing this is to offer an instructional course at no cost to anyone should they want to improve their communication skills and gain a better understanding of people at work, in their family circles, and as they meet new people to understand what motivates them to think and function as they do.

Much conflict in life is created by misunderstandings. One must believe that it is not our human intention to go around creating conflict in the way we think. It is always interesting to me that we search for the truth, and so when we find someone who agrees with us, we declare what we agree on is the truth. But if someone else disagrees with our thinking then one of us must not know what the truth is so it is always the other person, we say who does not know what they are talking about and is spreading lies. Once we believe in something, like our religion, our political opinions, our beliefs of right to life issues, and other complex beliefs, it is rare that we ever change those beliefs and will defend them to our death thinking our way is the truth and is right while all others who disagree with us do not know what the truth is and therefore are less wise, less smart, more sinful, or whatever terms we choose to let the world know that our belief is the only belief that is the truth, because people know two opposite sets of opinions cannot be the truth at the same time, (so we believe).

Without going in that part of neuropsychology further I will simply write about metaprograms in this series of writings that can be used to understand others better and maybe explain why two different people can have such different perspectives about the same occurrences in life. The study of metaprograms is not only used in personal relationships, but it is a powerful tool for HR department making decisions if an interviewee will fit into the current department, or corporate culture, or can fit the process-oriented description of the job they are applying for. Once Roger had developed his ideas fully, airlines like Southwest Airlines and Hewlett Packard companies adapted his theories into their HR hiring processes using “The Language and Behavior Profile” that became widely accepted as the gold standard for hiring new employees.

Let us begin this article on what motivate the way we think, the way we decide, and how we see the world through with our personal thinking.

 Through my writing you can decide how to use these principles and further discussion may be required to fully understand the significance of these programs that run in all humans being to one degree or another.

Proactive vs Reactive?

The first area we will examine is called the Proactive vs Reactive metaprogram. If you can identify with one or the other of these traits, then you will begin to understand why people that identify with the opposite trait seem so far apart from us in the way they think.

A proactive person often plans far in advance and likes to take charge and make things happen. They can be seen as controllers, and aggressive in their nature to get things done. Give them an assignment and they jump right in and take charge. They can be overly aggressive and not always take the time to figure out the risk involved with their decisions. But we can depend on them taking charge on the other hand and getting the job done even if it was a bit messy getting there.

On the other hand, the person who is the opposite is a reactive person. They do not tend to take the lead. They will wait and react to situations often caused by the proactive person. They are reactive in nature and do not care to take the lead. They prefer to sit and wait and see how things go and then react to whatever happens.

If this type of person is assigned to lead a project, they may have issues getting the work done on schedule but what they get done is more thought out prior to acting, it is a wait and see attitude most often seen in the way they respond. While proactives do not always think things through and are subject to making more mistakes the reactive person will sit and say, “see I told you so.” We might even say that proactive people tend to create problems often and Reactive people are good at finding and solving problems.

Each has a role to play on a team or in any company because neither of these traits is better than the other, but they can complement each other when placed in a position on a team where both thinking processes are needed. We will not go into deep discussions about all the metaprograms in this document because it is meant to only introduce individual Metaprograms and then hopefully the reader will ask questions and do further research in this area to develop their expertise in profiling of personalities.

Example of these metaprograms: If you were to hire a person interviewing as a police office, what do you look for from these two meta programs? If you answered, “You want a person that is proactive so they would step in and stop the crime from happening.” Well, you would be wrong in your assessment. A proactive policeman will most likely be one that gets involved in corruption and crime itself since if there is no crime to react to, they have a tendency to create a crime that needs to be solved and if they cannot be solving a crime, they will be crating one.” Now a policeman who is reactive will react fast to a crime and do all possible to stop the crime from continuing.”

On the other hand, if you are interviewing a person to become the chief of police, you would want to hire a proactive person since their metaprogram pushes them out the door into the community to set up programs that resolve or reduces crimes in their areas before they are created, in other words a community crime prevention program.

You see both have a good reason to consider. One to prevent crime in the first place, (proactive) and the other to react to a crime going on right now in a positive way. Each has their role to play.

The problem comes in when we hire the wrong meta programmed person for the job, that person ends up not lasting very long and can create more problems than they resolve because they are mismatched to the job.

The point of this metaprogram is that if you match the job requirements with the correct meta programmed person, that new employee will function at a more productive level, be more efficient in their job, and stay around longer because they are happier doing what is natural to them. In personal relationships, I think you can see right away what kind of conflict can occur if the couple is opposite from each other without understanding how the two differences can complement each other only if they learn how to work together will there be harmony. But without awareness, it is unlikely they will agree completely and will end up in constant conflict with one another and not understand why exactly. Neither are at fault; they just have a unique way of reacting to events due to the way their brains are programmed.

What are Your Motivating Factors You Use to Make a Decision?

This metaprogram is what is knowing the primary factor that motivates you. This metaprogram is used in Sales Training, as well in positions at work, and even in relationships, in your decision process.

The question used here is “what is the most crucial factor for you in….? In choosing the restaurant you like the most? In finding your life partner? In that new car you are buying? In the new house you are looking for? And so on. In this meta program we want to organize the primary key factors by the highest to the lowest priorities. What is the most…. (whatever)? And “Out of all those factors which one is the highest priority? Then the next and then the next, so on and so on.”

When we listen careful to the person’s response we can match what is important to them in their product selection, in their choice of partners, in what house fits them the best, what car they like the most, and other areas where we make choices about being with someone, buying something, working in a certain environment, a certain career, or any area otherwise that requires a choice. Understanding a person’s primary motivating factor in their decision making allows us to match the best choice we have available with the person’s primary decision factor.

Too often we assume that we know what motivates people to accept a job, for instance. We think it is salary perhaps and maybe to that person, what is important is to work in a job that allows them to learn, or work in a group, or work alone with the door closed.

Once again if we understand their motivation factors, we can then match them to what is important for them in relationships that are personal, positions at their company, in making a buying decision about our product or services we offer and anywhere else where a person is stating what their most important decision factors are.

The way we determine what is important to the person is asking them to explain what exactly they want to have in any decision they make, for instance, “What is the most important feature you want in your new car?” or “Please tell me what the most important factor you want in your new home? Followed up with, “Now tell me what the next important factor is in making this decision?” And this question can be asked several times to be able to prioritize influence factors in their decision process.

In understanding what motivates people we have a greater chance of matching their motivational factors with whatever it is that requires a choice to be made when there are different factors that can motivate them to make a decision.

 In my next small article, join me to understand the Meta Programs name “Moving Toward vs Moving Away” and “Internal vs External”.   

These metaprograms are powerful brain programs and can be some of the key elements in determining your success or failure in your career, in your entrepreneurial efforts, in relationships, and your choices in determining your career path.

For further deeper understanding and more examples, you can contact me at Dr.Robert@TopLeaderCoach.com and I’ll be glad to answer your