fandomhigh | Leadership, Thurs Period 1, Class 6 (10/9/08)

"You can tell people what to do but they're not necessarily going to agree with you," Nathan said. "In order to get that agreement you need to motivate them."

Nathan passed around handouts. "A guy named Maslow had the idea that we do things based upon where we are in a hierarchy of needs. At the very bottom are basic physical needs such as food and sleep. Going up the list are things like security, relationships, and self-esteem. At the top we have self-actualization, which is being the best we can be. It's worth noting that we don't achieve that level so much as strive for it.

"Putting this in terms of leadership, we have two takeaways. One: people aren't going to follow you on a level 3 need when they're down on level 1. In other words, someone who's starving isn't going to be too interested in putting their energy into trying to make new friends. How many of you have a difficult time learning before you have your morning cup of coffee?

"Two: if you figure out where they are in their needs, you can explain what you want in those terms. For instance, if we make new friends then we can work together to get food. If we fund our schools then our communities will grow stronger. And, a popular one come election time, if you vote for me I'll make sure our country doesn't come under nuclear attack.

"For today's class exercise I'd like you to get together in the following groups and use the hierarchy of needs to figure out how to motivate others to help you out with a problem," Nathan said. "The problem is that your country's economy is failing. You believe you have the solution, but you need to get people to agree with you and follow along in order to fix things. Don't worry about what your solution is, I'm not expecting anyone here to be an expert economist - well anyone besides Turtle - " Nathan grinned. "For the purpose of the class just focus on how this applies to the hierarchy of needs. What needs do people have because of a government that lacks money? How can a leader talk about those needs in a way that motivates people to believe in the solution?

"As always, I'm here if you have any questions."

Group 1
Momoko Akatsutsumi
Dor
Andrew Wiggin
Jaina Solo
Joan Girardi

Group 2
Evey Hammond
Hinata Hyuuga
Tony Foster
Ben Skywalker
Agnes Nitt

Group 3
Summer Roberts
Andros
Bender
Teyla Emmagan
Lucas Scott

Group 4
Alex Drake
Meg Powers
Teddy Altman
Tabitha-Ruth Wexler

[ooc: OCD is up!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fix the economy by being motivatey!

...

"I would say the most important thing people need is a roof over their head," Joan said.

"But in theory, you can live outside, right? I think I would put shelter as more a safety issue to look at second, maybe." Momoko doodled on her handout for a moment as she considered the scenario. "You can't live without food, though. If the economy is in trouble, we need to make sure that people can eat. How are the stores? Are the prices horrible? Are the farmers in trouble? Hungry people are not happy people."

"Depends on where you are," Joan said. "Maryland in the winter you would die of exposure if you lived outside. Plus people wouldn't have a way to store or prepare food."

Well that was true. "Hmm. Yeah. I agree then that sometimes housing would be a basic. But really, I don't think it's the most basic and if we focus too much on it, the people who aren't having problems with housing will get mad that other things are being ignored."

"~~We should distract them by talking about people who were Very Naughty when the other party's candidate was 8 and didn't know him.~~ I think it depends on the kind of government," Ben said. "Is this one that is supposed to take care of the disadvantaged? Because I'm guessing they'll be feeling the pinch if the government starts running out of credits."

"D-Don't most governments take c-care of the disadvantaged i-in some way?"

Ben thought back to his conversation with Kaylee. "Not necessarily," he said. "Sometimes they stop sending resources to punish certain groups."

"T-That doesn't change the f-fact that a p-proper government o-ought to be paying a-attention to a-all their interests," she said, "I w-would say that that i-is not a proper government a-at all."

"A proper government probably wouldn't also be going broke," Ben pointed out.

Ben was a little cynical.

"If the economy's failing, people will be worried about having food and a place to live," Tony said. "You'd have to reassure them on that stuff before anything else. No matter what the government usually does."

Ben nodded. "But if the government isn't usually good at providing those kinds of services, aren't they going to screw things up even more when they try?"

"... maybe? Aren't we part of the government in this exercise?"

"I think so," Ben said. "The people aren't going to have a whole lot of trust in us to do anything right if we've gotten them into a mess so bad they're afraid of losing their houses and not getting fed. How would we fix that?"

Tony considered this. "Maybe we weren't the ones who screwed up. Maybe we're taking over someone else's mess. We'd need to show people that we're going to be different. Could we put some kind of freeze on the banks and stuff? No one loses their home until this gets sorted out?"

"Do we know any rich people we could ask for help from?" Agnes contributed. She wasn't all that used to a country whose entire population couldn't all run and fit inside the castle when times were tough.

Re: Group 2

wantstodirect - 2008-10-10 01:34 (UTC) - Expand

"I think physiological and safety needs would be most important," Summer said. "Especially if you want to try to gain the trust of the people. It's easier to get someone motivated if they are more trusting."

"But if the government's broke then we have to focus," said Bender. "We just want enough people to agree with us, not everyone."

"And safety is a very basic need," Teyla agreed. "It's something that everyone wants, no matter how successful they are."

Turtle, of course, had some thoughts and ideas scribbled down in her notebook, but she wanted to see how the others in her group weighed in, too. Arm over the closed notebook, she passed a slight smile around her classmates. "Soooo?" she asked. "What do you think?"

Alex eyed the girl who'd been called out as an expert economist kind of warily. Wasn't that kind of like having a ringer? "What do you think?" he asked her.

Leadership, Thurs Period 1, Class 6 (10/9/08)

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