I spend some of my time training people in various things – mainly presentation skills of course! – and a concept I found myself explaining recently (rather to my surprise) was something called the ‘Urgent-vs-Important Matrix’. The basic ideas is that the two ideas (urgency and importance) are not the same. Often, of course, people assume they are, elide the concepts, and act accordingly… they treat urgent tasks as though they are important, no matter how trivial they may be, just because it’s urgent.
It’s a recipe for disaster, in terms of prioritisation and time management, obviously!
I had a similar revelation today, reading my friend Paul McGee’s book ‘How Not to Worry’. (By the way, you should buy a copy) when he talked about the difference between being inspirational and being motivational. I realised that in my head I’d thought of the two things being more or less synonymous. They aren’t, of course, but I’d elided them. A slightly different definition than Paul used might be this:
- Inspirational: providing inspiration (for anything, such as a creating a work of art)
- Motivational: inspiring you to do something
That means, of course, that it’s entirely possible for something to motivate you without being inspirational. You can be motivated by fear – which is hardly inspirational – but possibly effective!
Can it work the other way around? Can you motivate without being inspirational?
And what’s that got to do with being a speaker or a presenter?
This.
Something that’s perhaps more important than any difference in terms of what the works mean in the dictionary sense is what they mean in the real world – the so called connotation. The Paid-to-Exist blog suggests that motivation is associated with working yourself up to do something you don’t really want to do. On the other hand, Inspiration is associated with something altogether more positive.
So as a presenter or speaker, what would you rather do? Motivate people to make a change, or inspire them to do so?
On the other hand, I saw a lot of art recently, while touring Italy. (More in other blogs!) Some of it inspired me. It made me realise how fantastic, how magnificent the human race can be. But it didn’t motivate me (at least not directly) – it didn’t make me rush out and do anything. I’m blurring the definitions a bit here and moving into soggy ground, so to speak, but perhaps the job of a great presentation is
- to inspire you to want to change, to do something, to move on; and
- to motivate you with the tools to do that.
Each is only one side of the coin.
Great question and great insights.
Motivation is about moving people to take action by showing them how they will benefit — either extrinsically or intrinsically — from doing so. “If you act in this way, you will…(achieve your goals, succeed, get a raise, win approval, etc.).”
Motivation is somewhat short-lived. The intent is to get people to do something now, rather than later.
A motivational speech is, to my thinking, like a pep talk.
Coaches at half time or military leaders before battle want to motivate their people.
Inspiration is more about inviting people to be or do their best (which isn’t necessarily a specific action that I have in mind for them) not just now, but for the long haul.
Motivation is a prod. Inspiration is an open door. There’s a time and a place and a reason for each.
There’s a complex distinction to be made here. And I’m still mulling this one over…
Christopher, Ian – thanks for dropping by to you both!