How to Improve Processes by Tapping Their Emotional Drivers

When dealing with how to improve processes, we can do this without needing to change the process by tapping the emotional drivers that cause people to like them.

Processes drive business. They help us with change management and organizational cultures. When people think of how to improve processes, they often just focus on the process. Other ways exist. They deal with tapping the emotional drivers behind them.

How to Improve Processes but not Change Them

Processes offer practical benefits. They help us do things. We do not need to know how to do things. Processes tell us. They say, “Just do these steps. You will do it.”

They offer emotional benefits too. These benefits form the emotional drivers that lie behind all processes. They cause people to like processes.

When people are motivated, they perform better. That means applying processes better. The more motivated people are to use a process the better the process becomes. It becomes better without changing it.

Emotional Drivers behind Processes

Security is the base emotional driver that motivates people to use processes. In this sense, they are very similar to rituals. They help people feel secure that they will succeed. Other emotional drivers branch off from this base one.

In addition to feeling secure, people often need to feel:

• Certain
• Successful
• Strong
• Confident
• Powerful
• Safe

Processes help people satisfy these emotions plus many others. Our help can substantially upgrade that satisfaction. People become more motivated to use processes. The processes work better.

How to Tap These Emotional Drivers

How to improve processes by tapping their emotional drivers has two steps:

1. Raising these emotions to a conscious level
2. Reinforcing how processes satisfy these emotions

When we translate these into a workable script, it might go something like this:

1. “How important is it to you that you feel confident in your work?”
2. “This process will help your confidence because it will allow you to do . . .”

Here is another example:

1. “Mike, a while back you told me that you need to feel certain about the direction we are taking. Is that still the case?”
2. “Well then, can I show you how this process will help that?” (Pause for answer.) “Thank you, let me begin by showing you the results others have had with this process.”

When it comes to how to improve processes, people often just focus on the process. It is about motivation too. Improving motivation improves processes. Improve motivation by tapping emotional drivers that cause people to like processes.