Hi folks,
As you may know, I enjoy riding my bike. I bike to work during the week and on the weekends I go mountain biking. I typically ride by myself or with some friends, but occasionally I’ll enter a race or organized event.
This last weekend I rode in one of the local “epic” rides. This one was 40 miles of mostly single track throughout Montgomery County, Maryland. I was out of shape from a month of not riding while on paternity leave, I was tired (see aforementioned paternity leave), and it was raining. Wet roots and rocks abounded and made for treacherous riding. I was able to stay upright, but my friend wrecked twice, first earning a large, instant bruise on his hand, and then potentially some cracked ribs from sliding off a rain-slicked bridge. It wasn’t our favorite ride.
Normally, a long, challenging ride leaves me with some feeling of satisfaction. Not this time. By the end of the third hour my friend and I had our fill. We were tired, wet, sore, and – in his case – injured. Thankfully, we had an odometer which told us how far we had traveled. We knew the course was 40 miles, and we eagerly watched the remaining distance to the finish line shrink with each pedal stroke.
But a funny thing happened. 40 miles came and went, but we still weren’t done. Clearly, the odometer was inaccurate. Our hearts sank as we continued on with our ride, no longer having the proximity of the finish line to help motivate us.
Yeah, I know. There’s no crazy ending here. We eventually dragged our sorry carcasses across the finish line and limped our way to the car. Story over.
But the problem we encountered is one we deal with all the time in the workplace. The human body and mind are built to reward accomplishments. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that provides a feeling of pleasure whenever we do something good for ourselves, including accomplishing a goal. It’s a key part of our motivation and reward system – without it, we’d flounder as individuals and a species.
The problem during my ride is that once we realized our odometer was busted, my friend and I lost those incremental hits of dopamine as we edged closer to the finish line. Our motivation dropped, and the usual last-mile surge of energy never materialized.
At work, this happens when goals and objectives aren’t clearly established or are constantly changing. A clearly defined goal – hopefully with some nice, incremental milestones along the way – helps an organization tap into the brain’s motivation/reward system and use the power of dopamine. We’ve all done this on a small scale. If you’ve ever made a to-do list and felt the satisfaction of crossing off accomplishments, you’ve felt the power of dopamine. And as leadership super-thinker Simon Sinek confesses, some of us (myself included) add already-done items to our lists just to cross them off.
With the end of the Fiscal and performance calendars, now is a great time to consider this lesson. Clear, measurable, achievable goals are important for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps they’re most important because they tap into one of the most primitive parts of our brain and help drive us all towards success.
I know, right?
Rex