Hello XenokRoy,
It would help if we stopped handing out participation awards to the youth just for showing up... I have turned to paying commissions/bonuses as apposed to only hourly pay to some that are motivated as an option. It also spurs others when they see the example. For too long in this nation we have been fostering the idea of entitlement without effort. This is no way to inculcate an entrepreneurial spirit and proper motivation to excel.
Respectfully,
O.A.

I have read through the remarks currently on the list, and I find that XenokRoy's comments: "I am finding that the latest generation no longer are motivated by the ability to earn more, They are satisfied with less money and shorter work hours more so than more money..." and "Using the Words of my nephew to my father. "Grampa, this isn't the great depression. If things go wrong there are safety nets in place to make sure everyone is OK."" are in keeping with what I have seen/experienced with my employees.

And the nephew is at least partly correct. While I do not blindly trust the 'safety nets' he relies on, we are a far cry from the type of subsistence society where a single dry spell or unusual rainfall can mean your family will starve. It is not all that uncomfortable, after all, to live in your parents' basement and make only a little money...and have all the free time you want to have fun. (In a sense, 'time' and 'fun' are the commodities we are buying with our money. If they are in your grasp already, why should you work so hard?)

I think that this will persist as long as we have an affluent society. There will be fewer people who are sufficiently fascinated by the world to want to work in it.

Jan

Find the best people you can from what is available. You can't change a culture overnight.

At the bottom of this is the concept of the zero-sum game. If every gain by one person results from a loss to someone else, then it's pointless, overall, to engage in any economic activity. We have spent about 150 years believing that the rich get rich on the backs of the poor. "If you have money, you stole it from that poor guy over there. If you're poor, your money was stolen by the rich."

With that as the background, why bother trying? You're immoral if you win, and only moral if you lose. And you're also immoral if you suggest things could be otherwise.

To help people become creative, I use a tool I invented called a questions and issues sheet. It is brainstorming, followed by organization into categories (environmental, safety, health, economics, quality, social impact, technical/engineering, legal, and regulatory). For an example, see

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...

I actually taught this in today's class.

Hi XenokRoy. You've got quite a lot of advice and opinions here so far! Please watch this 10 minute video from Dan Pink that summarizes his book "Drive." There are proven ways to motivate employees effectively and honestly, but they aren't what or how most people think. http://youtu.be/u6XAPnuFjJc
On creativity, it can be taught but it needs a supportive infrastructure and work culture built around it to happen. A person's upbringing is also a huge factor. Everything and everyone has a context! And yet, part of that context is that we are all human beings, so there are some things that we can all do and strive to do, in our core person.
BTW, I used the ideas in this book (plus a few others I could mention If you are interested) to create an innovative culture and ecosystem in my employer's company site of 5,000 people. And I helped it spread to sites in other states and countries.

This is something I've been screaming about for years. Pardon the long missive.
Speaking as an aunt (by way of my hubby's sisters – I'm an only child), kids today have no ambition (other than wanting things they cannot afford, and they want it NOW! - we have a nation of Veruca Salts), no work ethic and no ability to plan for their futures.
Hubby and I have lots of nieces and nephews, ranging in age from 5 to 30. But I'll just use a few for examples.

Case in point: One niece is 25. She's absolutely wonderful with children. A natural. In high school, she expressed an interest in child psychology, and asked me if higher education was required. When I told her it required a master's degree minimum, she quickly lost interest. She then looked into other fields, all requiring at least a bachelor's degree. Again, no interest. She wanted a high-salary job that had minimum work hours and only required 2 years in a community college, the most time she was willing to “waste” in higher education. She wanted lots of free time to party with her girlfriends and buy Coach bags and diamond necklaces (where do working class kids get the idea that they can afford designer bags and diamonds when they aren't willing to work for them????).
She's married now, and her husband is just the same. High school graduate, wants big things, not willing to work for them. With him, it's performance cars with lots of after-market items. He goes from job to job, every 1-2 years. He's worked at hardware stores, grocery stores and currently does installations for a big cable company. Within 6 months of every new job, he's seen kvetching on his Facebook page about how much he (bleeping) hates his job and how much of a (bleeping) jerk his boss is. And when he's asked to do a little overtime, he goes ballistic.
When they became engaged to be married, they decided that they wanted a house. Never mind that they didn't have a down payment, they needed a house. I don't know who gave them the down payment, but I know my sister- and brother-in-law co-signed the mortgage (this is the second kid they've done that for – God help them if anyone defaults) and paid for the wedding and honeymoon.
They are now parents of a wonderful little girl, but live in a house of cards. They live from paycheck to paycheck, no savings for their future, no plans beyond a few days. Her hubby is about due for another job change, which of course means no private health insurance for a while, but “it's okay, we can use Obamacare”. And undoubtedly mooch off their relatives.

A nephew has his act together (partially). He went to a trade school and is an underwater welder. So far, so good. But the human body can only do that for 5-6 years. He has no clue what to do when his 6 years are up, and he's halfway there now. In 3 years he has to find another career, and has made no plans.

Another nephew just graduated from high school. When asked what he intends to do next, he just shrugs. He has no clue, and really doesn't care.

One of my younger nephews (age 12) aims high. He wants a mansion on the water, a yacht and a high-priced car (Aha, thought I, could this at last be the fires of ambition?). Nope. When I asked how he was going to get wealthy enough to pay for this, I got a blank stare. He is of the opinion that by just wanting it, somehow it will magically appear. No mention of hard work, education, or starting a business. I was crushed.

This is the pattern. Kids want something, they ask for or demand it, somebody scrambles to get it for them. Like I said, Veruca Salt.
And it's hardly any wonder they have no ambition. When they've not been allowed to fail while growing up, they believe that they cannot fail as adults. That there will always be someone or something to bail them out.
They are all immature. Children in adult bodies. The only solution I can think of is to allow them to fail, and see if they can manage to find their own way.

As for future generations, it's up to today's parents and schools to cut the mollycoddling and let them get their bumps and scratches young, so they can prepare for a self-reliant future. No one is teaching capitalism anymore; it's a dirty word. Get the commies out of the education system; home school your kids if you like, but teach them capitalism and objectivism.

Have we already gone over the abyss? I fear so. Didn't Lenin once say that he could create collectivists with one generation of schoolchildren? It seems he was right.

I am fascinated by this post. I don't have an answer, but I look forward to reading other people's suggestions.

CAPITALISM: is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
AR "what is capitalism?" CUI, 19 LP discuses in Capitalism as the only moral social system, " OPAR, 380.
I do not believe it will come back anytime soon based upon the above definition.

This used to be called the work ethic or the protestant work ethic. The influence begins at home as a child and is reinforced, or not, by the educational system. The Jesuit maxim applies "Give me the child for seven years,
and I will give you the man." https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question...
My experience in having done business in Asia is that they teach in concepts, not factoids, and there is much more devotion to family among young people. Largely the opposite of what is occurring in America.

What you are really facing is the conundrum of culture. India is dominated by cultural norms such as the class/caste system (found ever-present in government) and top-down authority. The US usually runs the other way, with almost extremist individuality and (especially in the younger generations) a borderline disdain for authority. Can you change them? Only to a degree. And the problem is that you aren't going to be able to change them using the same approach.

You can't teach creativity. You can emphasize problem-solving, however. So start rewarding your Indian workers who solve specific problems. What I might caution against is equating creativity with the unorthodox solution. Don't get so hung up on how the problem gets solved that you ignore the fact that the problem got solved. On the other hand, however, don't equate all solutions to the problem, as that is where you lose the "creative" aspect you are looking for. It might be difficult, but you are going to have to quantify how well the problem got solved in each case so that you have a baseline to use to demonstrate to your Indian workers about how creative approaches differ financially. It's clear they have the drive to produce, they simply need to be prodded to extend themselves. So give them the opportunity to lead projects so they trust in themselves. Let them make mistakes and then coach them that mistakes happen, but can be learned from (to a point). The common problem with the authoritative culture is that of fearing to offend or let down the authority figure. The only way to overcome that is to emphasize to them that you will be let down only if they do not try.

For your American workers, the questions are polar opposites of their Indian counterparts. The Americans have the creativity which comes from wanting to do their own thing, but not the discipline necessary to stay with things when the going gets tough. That is the ultimate challenge you face, and I don't know if a solution to this exists because what you would actually have to overcome is the inertia already present in their value system. The only way to overcome this inertia is by their own choice: they have to decide that either their premises are incorrect and that the safety net isn't as safe as they think or they have to see themselves as possible of more than mere bottom-feeding. One is informational, the other motivational, both highly subjective.

Good luck.

India::: focus on tradition, traditional barriers ... identify them,
list them ........ then Leave Them Behind. . start talking about
inches and yards, for example, and degrees F. . compel them
to go Outside Their Comfort Zone!!! . then give them a task like
inventing a new way to do their job, regardless of how silly --
turning a wrench with their left (or opposite) hand;;; starting
phone calls with Thank You instead of Hello. . things like that.
invent new traditions, at work.

u.s.::: give them goals which, when they reach them, result
in an on-the-clock party. . company buys the goodies.
group awards for work successes. . bring some of the fun
of after-work successes into the work environment.

just suggestions from 2 graduate degrees in management
and experience as a dept. head. . Good Luck!!! -- j
.

Stop paying by the hour and equal pay for a position. Pay for performance. Performance based on a metric that the employee can identify and effect and can readily see the results of. And that metric also needs to be tied in some direct way to the profitability of the division or company. But also pay attention to 'span of control' and 'attention span' per position.

One of the largest failings of the industrial age has been the change to an hourly wage based on the employee servicing the machine, the production line, the system. Prior to that, a man was paid per unit and quality. Hourly pay has done more to drive the average worker towards unionism and socialism than anything else in our world. We've removed individual pride in accomplishment and competition from the workplace and it needs to be restored.

But the key to it all is the development of the proper metric for each individual. And that includes supervision's metric based on the work of the team.

Creativity requires recognition, confidence in supervision that will recognize, and confidence in self built up by the supervisor's recognition and award of incentives, and incentives based on motivations of the culture of the individual.

Its the leader who sets the tone and gets people interested in excelling- just for the feeling of accomplishing something. Steve Jobs knew how to do it, and NO ONE wanted to feel their design was shit as he used to say.

If they are motivated to limit the intrusion into their time (their time is more important than $), incentivize them that way. Give time off to teams for completing work on/ahead of schedule. This can be a +/- incentive as well by not allowing them to leave if they are not done (assuming they are not non-exempt).

Like anything else, creativity needs to be taught. Much of it is thinking out of the box. A trite phrase but in this case true. I would find a person who could teach a course in creativity and make it a bonus situation for those who take it and pass. Not everyone will. If they do, you've got the wrong teacher. In the USA, the work ethic has diminished to the point where it is as hard to find as a diamond bracelet on the beach with a metal detector. You might create a job application that tests work ethic, but be careful, you might get sued.

In the US, it's no longer chic to be outstandingly successful. It's not longer the age of the nerds. Steve Jobs is no longer "in." What's "in" now is Occupy Wall Street, and the "right" to have a living without effort. You need to create an environment where the 1% is the ideal, and the 99% is the also ran. BTW, cronies don't qualify for the 1%, even if they have the money. The Asians (and other foreigners) come from a society where the nail that sticks up gets hammered. They are outstanding when they work in groups (a la the Japanese), but they get blown out of the water alone, which is why they aren't as creative as Americans. If you're going to hire an American, hire as many as possible who've traveled overseas, especially if they've been to third world countries. That exposure should have given them some insight into what's great about America, and probably have given them a bit more ambition than your typical youth. Being multilingual also helps. With both groups, it helps to start as early as possible (in diapers) to head off the cultural imprinting that negatively affects one's innovation and work ethic.

Not everyone can be creative. Most cannot. And we are all affected by our surroundings. Indian culture is very much family based and tightly packed, so the youngsters grow up just like their parents and siblings - as a family, not as individuals. Creativity is hard to incubate in that environment. Another feature of the Indian culture is to take maximum advantage of others. That may help them survive, or just get ahead in a queue, but, again, it does not build self-reliance and individualism that are needed to be creative.

As to the US staff, hire children of recent immigrants (not anchor babies) who still have a work ethic.