Corey writes:

As Gina mentioned in her six month review, there are some things that are starting to bother us, which we were expecting. The shine has worn off a little, but at the same time, we're now entering what will hopefully be the most productive period of time at work. That is, if we can get people motivated.

Gina and I like to think and talk about why people do the things they do. Also, it's interesting to think about how to get people to want to do what you want them to do. Building things and making rules that are sustainable require that the people involved find some value in using your things or following your rules.

Gina and I knew that the previous VSO volunteers had all tried to do some training sessions with limited success. So, us being the out-of-the-box thinkers and MBA-ers we are, we thought to ourselves "Our training program will be different! People are gonna show up!" We did it by the book: asking people what they want to learn, asking them when they're available, even offering to run training outside of work hours. This past Sunday was to be the training for the most-requested topic: MS Access (go figure). 10 people had signed up. We showed up. They did not. Not a single person.

So we're back to the drawing board. We've tried the "participatory" way we've been taught. This is not the Indian way. Or at least it's not the SOVA way. People seem to be motivated primarily by fear. Fear of getting yelled at or getting fired. This is new to us. (But we're learning to yell.)

I'll throw this one out to the audience: any suggestions on how to get people to training? Suggestions of food bribery and achievement certificates have been laughed off by our boss.