How to motivate attendance without making it mandatory
“What called you here today?”, Oprah Winfrey posed to a crowd of 25,000 on a recent tour stop. “You gave up your Saturday, not even knowing what this really was”.
In just two lines, Winfrey revealed what often gets hidden in our gatherings: What’s at stake.
Oprah is an obvious draw. But it’s likely many attendees were pulled to the gathering for more personal reasons.
There is always something at stake -- time, for starters — whether we’re attending or creating the gathering, and whether we want to, or have to attend. The challenge is, in many organizations, instead of making clear what’s at stake, we make our gatherings mandatory.
Instead of pulling on what people care about, we push others to show up.
We don’t really know why we’re there, other than some extrinsic reason like an obligation. Duty, instead of desire.
Oprah, we are not. Mandatory is what will make people show up, we think. And in doing so, we manufacture stakes instead of understanding something more powerful: motivation.
What it means to raise the stakes
When rich video-store magnate Johnny Rose and his family suddenly find themselves broke, they are forced to relocate to Schitt’s Creek, a small, depressing town they once bought as a joke.
Peel back the layers of your favorite movie or TV show. Chances are you’ll find a must-have device: raising the stakes.
Screenwriters are taught the more stakes are raised, the more invested an audience will be in the story. If an audience doesn’t truly care about the problem at the start, they are not going to care about the solution at the end.
The same goes for our gatherings. To discover what’s at stake the questions we can ask about our attendees are the same:
What does the character want or need?
Who or what stands in the way?
What will the consequences be if they fail?
How are the stakes shown, have they been established?
What do they stand to gain?
What do they stand to lose?
What matters to the people you’ve gathered?
When we worry whether or not people will attend our gathering, it’s likely we haven’t yet uncovered what is or what could be at stake for them. If we don't know why, what’s at stake, chances are our employees won’t know either.
Instead, we may be relying on what’s at stake for us: our metrics, our reputation, etc.
Mandatory often means we are starting with a deficit, needing to prove the value of the time spent. And butts in seats doesn’t equal buy-in.
If nothing is at stake, or there isn’t a clear want, our initiatives run the danger of becoming check-the-box initiatives that people may comply with but not necessarily be engaged enough with to follow to the end.
Instead of asking what’s the carrot, ask, why should people care?
Set a timer for 10-15 minutes. List as many sources of stakes as you can think of. Then put them in order of importance.
To help with your brainstorming, consider: People seek help when there is a personal need or a need in the business.
Stakes get raised not just with desire, but with data. Retention/attrition numbers, engagement surveys, revenue, or other business metrics give the problems we aim to solve some heft and signal they are heavy enough to be worthy of our time and attention.
This tension pulls others in by presenting not just a challenge but curiosity towards the resolution.
What’s the anxiety? What’s the need? What’s the urgency? Mandatory or not, we can pull on desire to put motivation front and center.
How to raise the stakes at the start of your gathering:
Name what’s at stake
Calling out what is likely on people’s minds builds trust and helps others feel seen. Time, for starters. The equivalent of this in a movie is naming the villain.
Ask what’s at stake
If people are there by choice, they came for a reason. So, surface it. Find out what’s at stake and then connect their reason with yours. Whether or not we ask, people will be connecting it to their own needs anyway. This is normal and natural so we might as well ask and make it explicit.
Ask, “what does this topic make you think about - what open questions do you have?” Throw a few questions on the screen before the gathering starts. People may not immediately know what their need is, questions help get them thinking.
Give attendees a reason to care
If your gathering is mandatory, give attendees skin in the game.
First, answer the “so what” question. Show them how this will help by introducing a panel of former resistors. Sharing stories helps others cultivate faith.
Use data to share the urgency, immediacy, or burning platform. Yes, we want to achieve something, but if the stakes are too low it won’t be clear for employees what is at stake if we fail.
Oftentimes the change initiatives and gatherings we are invested in are too removed from the needs of those we seek to change. Instead of making the gathering mandatory, erase the distance by connecting the dots between what is at stake for us and what others are invested in.
Lindsey Caplan is a screenwriter turned organizational psychologist who helps HR & business leaders create experiences that boost motivation, engagement, and performance