The Motivation Contagion – every person matters
Fitness is contagious. Who impacts that the most? The least fit person in your group. Researchers found: "If half of your friends were to become among the least fit for reasons unrelated to you, your own fitness level would drop by nearly 20 percent…"
It turns out that motivation can function almost like a disease. It is contagious and can work its way through your peer group in the same way that the flu potentially can. To coaches, teachers, managers, leaders or anyone who deals with motivating groups of people this shouldn’t sound too surprising. It’s referred to as “team culture.”
In 2010, the US Air Force Academy set out to understand why some cadets increase their fitness while others do not. They tracked the cohort of cadets over 4 years. Cadets spent a vast majority of their time interacting with peers in their squadron where the squadron was like second family. Cadets in the same squadron eat, sleep, study, and workout together. Even though all squadrons trained and recovered in the same manner, some squadrons showed vast increases in fitness over 4 years whereas others did not.
It turns out the determining factor as to whether the 30 cadets within a squadron improved was the motivation of the least fit person in the group. If the least fit person was motivated to improve, then his enthusiasm spread and everyone improved. On the other hand, if the least fit person was negative, he dragged everyone down.
Just like diseases spread through tight knit groups, so does motivation and it is the least fit person who has the greatest impact. Even the simple act of observing others can affect your own motivation.
Everyone matters. You aren’t simply affecting your own fitness, but that of everyone around you. Your decisions to exercise, be motivated, bring a positive attitude to training, and so forth can impact everyone.
Secondly, we tend to focus on the high performers. We focus on the stars of the program and sometimes neglect the less talented athletes. In organizations one would see that it was the bottom 20% that swayed the team culture. If they were on board, things went smoothly, if not, they were the ones who would cause problems.
This shows why group dynamics matter so much. In the experiment mentioned above, it clearly showed that fitness is contagious. Who you surround yourself with in your peer group or team matters a lot.
There is research that also demonstrates that things like obesity, smoking and depression, all can be similarly contagious.
Bottom line:
1. Every single person in the group counts
2. Choose your peer group and inner circle wisely
Comments
Post a Comment