Voila! Today I will be using the Louvre Pyramid to illustrate Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow's framework suggests that humans have needs that are sorted in a hierarchy of five levels; mentioned hereunder from lowest to highest precedence:
- Physiological: including the need for oxygen, water, food and sleep
- Safety: security, freedom from pain and protection from danger
- Love: affection, belongingness and friendship
- Esteem:
self respect, prestige, freedom, status, and recognition
- Self-actualization: challenge, creativity or broadly "becoming everything that one is capable of becoming"
Once a lower need has been satisfied it is no longer a motivator, the next level becomes the motivator; e.g. Once the Safety need starts to become satisfied, the Love need becomes the next motivator.
However, Maslow's hierarchy is not of fixed order, some exceptions might exist where the order is reversed. Think about how Muslims fast the Holly month of Ramadan where they don't eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk (Physiological needs) while they still have to be productive in their daily lives. In other cases a need might be completely absent, "some people who have been deprived of love in early childhood may experience the permanent loss of love needs".
Knowing how to motivate others can do good or bad and one of my 'motives' about writing this post was what I read about Egypt's Battle of the Camel. Back then some attackers have been hired to attack demonstrators in exchange for meals. It is clear that when people are striving for basic needs (Physiological in this example) you would not expect them to realize what damage they are doing to the big picture; i.e. they can be easily manipulated.
Probably you now have an idea on how to motivate your peers and beloved ones. I will conclude by what Bob Marley said "Don't let them fool ya".
References:
* Mullins, L. J. (2007). Management and Organisational Behaviour (8th Edition ed.). Harlow: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall, Pages: 257-260
* Photo edited using http://pixlr.com/ (thx Soz)
