An environment that supports good decision-making is important.

How can you motivate other people to pursue good choices in education, health, diet, exercise, finance or other life choices?  What makes the difference between motivational attempts that light a spark of action and those that are ignored or greeted with cynicism?   Is it realistic to think that anyone can really motivate another person?

Recently, I was drawn into an engaging conversation about motivation while leading a workshop for high school teachers about how to engage students in career exploration in a way that might reach out to undecided and not-yet-focused and not-yet-motivated students. 

In most high schools, there are some students whose goals emerge early on; they know that they want to attend a four-year college or two-year college or pursue a skilled trade or enter a family business.  They may be interested in a particular field of study or career or may be motivated toward a general liberal arts education. There are other students whose plans emerge slowly, and who make decisions after exploring various interests and weighing different options.  There are also others who have no clear focus as high school graduation approaches, and if asked, answer vaguely about maybe working or maybe taking some classes somewhere or maybe no plans yet at all. 

How can teachers, counselors, youth program staff and others reach out to these students to inspire a more motivated approach to post-high-school planning? 

This question has parallels in many other areas of education and public policy – there are many areas of life - in education, environment, diet, health, personal finance and more – where personal choices overlap with public interest and where educators, public and nonprofit leaders, youth program leaders and others hope to influence personal choices and spark motivated action.

In economics, there is a theoretical model of decision making that assumes that people make rational choices based on available information and based on their personal preferences regarding risk and their personal assessment of the cost and value of various efforts and results. 

Like investors making investment decisions, people instinctively weigh various options when making life choices.

Like investors weighing different possible investment options, people weigh various life choices (perhaps explicitly, perhaps more instinctively) to decide what to do and where to invest time, money and energy.  Questions as diverse as “Should I move to the city or stay here in my rural town?” or “Should I apply for this apprenticeship program” or “Should I start my own business” or “Should I join a gym to get more exercise?” or “Should I cook tonight or get take-out food?” can be analyzed with this model.

For example, the potential action may be “Attending a Four-Year College.”  For a student considering this choice, the potential outcomes may be: (#1) they enjoy college, graduate and find a professional job; (#2) they graduate but don’t find work related to their field of study; or (#3) they start but struggle and leave college before finishing. 

The student considers the probability of each possible outcome, by considering the experiences of friends, relatives and acquaintances;  their impressions about the job market; their own experiences in school and jobs; and positive and negative messages they have heard from teachers, counselors, youth program staff, media and others.  

Students may also consider the reliability of what they have seen and heard.  For example, they may attend a school in which the goal of entering a four-year college is highly emphasized, but their own experiences and observations show that starting college is not a guarantee of graduating or having a successful career.  They may have heard mixed messages about the value of college for everyone vs. the likelihood that they, personally, will succeed in college.  They may also have heard mixed messages about the their own community and chances of success, with expressions of concern backfiring as expressions of low expectations.

Students also consider the perceived costs – both the actual dollar cost of attending college and the non-tangible cost (or benefit) of spending two or four years in college.   (Will they enjoy their classes? Will they enjoy campus life? Will they be homesick? Will they fit in socially at the college?)   They also consider the perceived dollar and non-tangible value of the various positive outcomes.  What is the value of having a professional career? Is it worthwhile to attend college for its own sake if college graduation isn’t the only route to a successful career?  What is the value of having a college education?

Students also consider their own tolerance for risk.   If a student thinks that going to college carries more risks then other choices, but also has potentially higher rewards, the student needs to decide how comfortable they are with taking this risk.

What does this suggest about motivation? 

First it suggests that effective motivation needs to be more than just talking about and promoting the choices that we think a student “ought to” make.  It needs to be based on providing information and experiences that can illuminate good decision making.  It needs to be done with honesty — presenting a wide range of possible choices and paths — with recognition that in real life, people take many different routes to successful careers.  Real-life connections with local professionals and local businesses can help students visualize different options for their future.  Opportunities for in-depth look at job market information can uncover interesting concepts about real careers in the current economy.  A variety of hands-on experiences, such as community service projects, after-school jobs, internship programs, and various other school and community activities can light a spark and provide motivation.

Second, information must be combined with actions that increase the chances of success.  Schools are now recognizing the need to do more to prepare students for college placement tests that will determine whether they need to take developmental courses before starting college-level work; for preparing students with strategies to help them find support and mentoring to get through the first few semesters of college; and for providing career exploration that will support students when they select courses , college majors or postsecondary training programs.

Honesty and respect are important elements in career development education, as well as in any type of life education.   Why do some messages — about careers, education, diet, health, environment, etc. — resonate with people and others are ignored or heard with cynicsim?  When is it helpful to hear advice about diet and when is it annoying? When is advice about personal health welcome and when is it unwelcome?    What career advice do you embrace and what advice do you ignore?  How do you, personally, convert public messages about health, diet, exercise, environment, education or careers into personal motivation?

Ideally, career development education should provide messages that resonate with people in a way that is honest, respectful and can lead to action.  Messages should focus on the strengths of the local and regional economy and should engage students, parents and local community members in dialogues about career opportunities.  Messages should focus at the personal level and the “micro-economic” level on the variety of potential job markets in the local and regional economy and not on sweeping “macro-economic” trends about job gains and job losses and groups of people being left behind.  Conversations about the job market should provide an optimistic look at long-run options, recognizing that the current recession has depressed job markets, but focusing on ways that in an entrepreneurial economy, new opportunities can emerge and job markets can be continually transformed.  

Experts in motivation emphasize that motivation ultimately has to be internal.   Schools and organizations and others can shape the environment, provide information, enrichment and valuable experiences, remove negative messages and focus on positive messages.  From this foundation, hopefully more and more students will find their own spark of motivation to pursue interesting post-high-school paths.