Source 3: Social Motivation – Harness Peer Pressure

No matter how motivated and able individuals are they’ll still encounter enormous social influences that usually support the status quo and discourage behavior reform. Whether people acknowledge it or not, there are few motivators as potent as the approval or disapproval of friends and coworkers.  A few examples on the power of social influence:
• After a senior engineer tells a junior engineer that “production work is for dropouts,” the junior engineer proceeds to make career choices that he now believes will bring honor and prestige.
• After a new hire challenges an idea in a meeting only to be ostracized by her colleagues, she decides to never again speak candidly and freely in her meetings.

• When senior physicians don’t wash their hands before treating patients, less than 10 percent of their residents wash up5.
Effective influencers understand that lots of small interactions shape and sustain the behavioral norms of an organization.
The key to effective social motivation is to get peer pressure working for you instead of against you.

Source 4: Social Ability – Find Strength In Numbers