Today I attended a change management course with a few of my work colleagues. Needless to say it was a bit of a long day with lots of information thrown at us but a useful day all the same.

We learnt more on what motivates people and how this is related to introducing change into the workplace. Change at work comes in all forms, whether it’s to the organisational structure, way in which people work, or even policies such as health and safety or clean desks.

What motivates people to do anything? Everyone is motivated, you just have to find what it is and use that to help you bring about change. Sounds a bit manipulative? It probably is seeing that we are dealing with psychology here. Getting people to do what you want is a widely debated topic. There are tons of books about this, which implies that everyday life is filled with examples of introducing change to someone else.

For instance, one such example in everyday life happened to the boy recently. He was recounting the absurdity of a conversation he had with the receptionists at a gym and then subsequently their manager. I’ve paraphrased the conversation below as I haven’t quite got the hang of writing in Scottish.

Boy arrives at gym and proceeds to reception.

“Can I have two towels please?”

“Sorry we don’t give two towels. You can have only one,” responds the receptionist.

“But I need two towels. One to use while I work out and the other for when I have a shower.”

“We’re not allowed to give two towels, only one.”

“They give me two towels at all the other branches.”

“Well we don’t here.”

Boy fumes, decides to do his workout and then deal with this problem later.

After a particularly sweaty session, boy returns to see another receptionist sat at the desk.

“Can I have a towel please?”

“No you can only have one. We can’t give you two,” receptionist gives boy an evil look. Clearly the other receptionist had relayed the earlier conversation.

“Is that your manager there?”

“Yes,” receptionist replies with a smirk. Not a good sign.

Boy ventures over to the rather large and beefy manager, wondering if this will end in fisticuffs. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained. In this case gaining a measly towel that’s desperately needed to aid the after shower experience before returning to work.

“Hi, I’d like to have another towel to use with my shower. As you can see this one is quite wet already.”

Manager replies,”Well we have a certain quota of towels that arrive from head office which only allows us to give one towel per person.”

“But I can’t use this towel for after my shower. It’s full of sweat.”

“It’s the head office policy. If we gave everyone two towels, we won’t have enough to go around.”

“Maybe you should tell head office to provide you with more towels. I get two towels at all the other branches of this gym and there has been no problem. You clearly don’t have enough towels for everyone. I’m sure everyone who comes to the gym would like to have two towels,” boy shaking his head at the irrationality of the conversation.

“You’re right. I’ll drop them an email about it. In the meantime, I’ll make sure the receptionists know to give you two towels,” responds the manager, now apparently tired of the conversation.

Boy gets towel and somewhat triumphantly has shower before returning to work.

So how does this related to my change management course? One word. Power.

Power is what motivated the receptionists to respond in the manner they did. With next to no authority available at their level, they sought to wield it wherever they could. In this case, an absolute refusal to be accommodating over what in the grand scheme of things is quite trivial.

Other factors that motivate people are social status, achievements, recognition, money and the list continues. All of which can be found in everyday situations outside the office. Knowing what motivates people can be very useful in helping you introduce change. Whether or not you can cater to the motivations of each individual is another thing entirely.

So what could the boy have done in this situation? Very little really. The change in the attitudes of the staff lie within the culture of their organisation. Perhaps by understanding what motivated their workforce and using that to incentivise their staff would help the gym in improving their overall level of customer service and satisfaction. Who knows maybe this could help them to retain their customers rather than seeing them trotting off to the competition.

Of course you may decide that there is no rationale explanation, motivation or otherwise for this story but rather it’s just another great example of the poor level and high handed manner of customer service in London. Particularly with overpriced gyms!