The Motivation Provided by Having a Partner and Being Part of a Team

In this Harvard Business Review interview by Scott Berinato, Kansas State University kinesiology professor Brandon Irwin reports some interesting findings on motivation and coaching that may apply to K-12 schools. He had people perform abdominal “planks” (lying face down, keeping your body straight, lifting yourself up on your elbows, and holding that position as long as you can) under three different conditions:

• The first group did planks alone.
• The second group had a partner who was an expert at planks but remained silent.
• The third group had an expert partner who offered lots of encouragement: “Come on. You can do it. You got this.”

The second and third groups – plankers with partners – did better than those who were solo, but those with silent partners did better than those with encouraging partners (33 percent versus 22 percent better). Why? Irwin says having a higher-performing partner is clearly motivating – people are competitive. But the motivational chatter may be seen as condescending or be mistaken for the partners encouraging themselves, suggesting that maybe they weren’t better after all. Words of encouragement might have worked if the partners addressed them by name. What works best of all is leading by quiet example and addressing people’s needs directly. 

In another study involving stationary bicycles, Irwin and his colleagues confirmed that people with high-performing partners improved twice as much as solo bikers. The researchers also discovered another factor that was even more powerful: bikers who were told their performance was contributing to a team score increased their performance threefold. “What we think is that the feeling of being indispensable, which results from the shared goal, makes you work harder, especially when you know you’re the weaker link of the team,” says Irwin. “The bond becomes stronger.” Similarly, when people compete as part of a relay team (in track or swimming), they are usually faster than when they race alone. 

Irwin also experimented with monetary incentives (a chance to win an $80 gym membership) and found this made people perform worse. Why? He thinks it’s because this created competing goals – help the team or win the membership – and distracted people from the more powerful motivation. 

Would any of this work in an office or school situation? Irwin believes group cohesion is a key motivational factor – feeling that your efforts are important to your team’s success.

“If You Want to Motivate Someone, Shut Up Already” – An Interview with Brandon Irwin by Scott Berinato in Harvard Business Review, July/August 2013 (Vol. 91, #7/8, p. 24-25), no e-link available 

From the Marshall Memo #492