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Electrical Motor Diagnostics
WIIFM: What’s In It For Me?
Howard
W Penrose, Ph.D.
Vice
President, Electrical Reliability Group
T-Solutions, Inc.
howard@motordiagnostics.com
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Introduction
One of
the key issues to building buy-in for new technologies
has been the WIIFM factor. So far, in every application
of Electrical Motor Diagnostics, the primary driver has
been the ‘Technology Champion.’ The reason is that the
champions have already determined what EMD will do for
them. The problem is how to communicate the ‘feeling’
and understanding that these technologists have; in
relation to what it will do for them, to the general
maintenance, reliability or technology specialist.
So, let
us explore the possible reasons for technology buy-in of
the champions:
ü
Involvement in a ground-breaking technology
ü
Limited
number of experts
ü
Understanding of what the technology will do for the
company/employer
ü
Teaching/Training and Mentoring
ü
Leadership and Power
When
applied to basic psychology, how do these champions
differ from the norm? For this, we must explore Abraham
Maslow (1954) and his work on human motivation.
Basic
Human Needs
The
science of psychology has identified four basic human
needs. These set the groundwork for comfortable
living. It is generally understood that if there is a
deficiency in any of these needs, the individual will
act to remove the deficiency:
ü
Physiological: Hunger, thirst, bodily comforts
ü
Safety/Security: Out of danger
ü
Belongingess and Love: Affiliation with others,
acceptance
ü
Esteem:
To achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition
These
are termed by Maslow as ‘deficiency needs.’ Once these
needs have been actualized, then the individual tends to
focus on the ‘growth needs.’
Growth
Needs
Maslow
identified four growth needs that can explain quite a
bit about the motivation of the existing EMD champions,
as well as pioneers, in general:
ü
Cognitive: To know, understand and explore
ü
Aesthetic: Symmetry, order and beauty
ü
Self-Actualization: To find self-fulfillment and realize
one’s potential
ü
Self-Transcendence: To connect to something beyond the
ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize
their potential.
Figure
1: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [1]
The
self-actualized people tend to be characterized by:
ü
Being
problem-focused
ü
Incorporating an ongoing freshness and appreciation of
life
ü
A
concern about personal growth
ü
The
ability to have peak experiences
Each
level of need is accompanied by different levels and
types of information that can be accepted:
ü
Coping
Information: Survival information, all other types are
normally discarded if they do not assist in the goal of
supplying deficient needs.
ü
Helping
Information: Seeking information on dealing with safety
needs
ü
Enlightening Information: Seeking information on
belonging.
ü
Empowering Information: For people looking for
information on developing their ego and self-esteem
ü
Edifying Information: For people in the Growth needs.
C.H.
Patterson [2] describes the self actualized person, as
compared to the average person, as follows (Maslow, 1956
- Quote):
ü
More
efficient perception of reality and more comfortable
relations with it. This characteristic includes the
detection of the phony and dishonest person and the
accurate perception of what exists rather than a
distortion of perception by one’s needs.
Self-actualizing people are more aware of their
environment, both human and non-human. They are not
afraid of the unknown and can tolerate the doubt,
uncertainty and tentativeness accompanying the
perception of the new and unfamiliar. This is clearly
the characteristic described by Combs, Snygg and Rogers
as awareness of perceptions or openness to experience.
ü
Acceptance of self, others and nature. Self-actualizing
persons are not ashamed or guilty about their human
nature, with its shortcoming, imperfections, frailties
and weaknesses. Nor are they critical of these aspects
of other people. They respect and esteem themselves and
others. Moreover, they are honest, open, and genuine,
without pose or façade. They are not, however,
self-satisfied but are concerned about discrepancies
between what is and what might be or should be in
themselves, others and society.
ü
Spontaneity. Self-actualizing people are not hampered
by convention, but they do not flout it. They are not
conformists, but neither are they anti-conformists for
the sake of being so. They are not externally motivated
or even goal-directed. Rather their motivation is the
internal one of growth and development, the
actualization of themselves and their potentials.
ü
Problem-Centering. Self-actualizing people are not
ego-centered but focus on problems outside of
themselves. They are mission-oriented, often on the
basis of a sense of responsibility, duty or obligation
rather than personal choice. This characteristic would
appear to be related to the security and lack of
defensiveness leading to compassionateness.
ü
The
Quality of Detachment; The need for Privacy. The
self-actualized person enjoys solitude and privacy. It
is possible for him/her to remain unruffled or
undisturbed by what upsets others. He may even appear
to be asocial. This is a characteristic that does not
always appear in descriptions of self-actualized
persons.
ü
Autonomy, Independence of Culture and Environment.
Self-actualized persons, though dependent on others for
the satisfaction of the basic needs of love, safety,
respect and belongingness, are not dependent for their
main satisfactions on the real world, or other people,
culture or means-to-ends, or, in general, on extrinsic
satisfactions. Rather, they are dependent for their own
development and continued growth upon their own
potential and latent resources.
ü
Continued Freshness of Appreciation: Self-actualizing
persons repeatedly, though not continuously, experience
awe, pleasure and wonder in their everyday world.
ü
The
Mystic Experience, The Oceanic Feeling. In varying
degrees and with varying frequencies, self actualizing
people have experiences of ecstasy, awe and wonder with
feelings of limitless horizons opening up, followed by
the conviction that the experience was important and had
a carry-over into everyday life [I refer to this as
‘passion’ - HWP].
ü
Gemeinshaftsgefuhl. Self-actualizing people have a deep
feeling of empathy, sympathy or compassion for human
beings in general. This feeling is, in a sense,
unconditional in that it exists along with the
recognition of the existence of others of negative
qualities that provoke occasional anger, impatience and
disgust.
ü
Interpersonal Relations. Self-actualizing persons
develop deep interpersonal relations with others. They
are selective, however, and their circle of friends may
be small, usually consisting of other self-actualizing
people, but the capacity is there. They attract others
to them as admirers or disciples.
ü
The
Democratic Character Structure. The self-actualizing
person does not discriminate on the basis of class,
education, race or color. He is humble in his
recognition of what he knows in comparison with what
could be known, and he is ready and willing to learn
from anyone. He respects everyone as potential
contributors to his/her knowledge, merely because they
are human beings.
ü
Means
and Ends. Self-actualizing persons are highly ethical.
They clearly distinguish between means and ends and
subordinate means to ends.
ü
Philosophical, Unhostile Sense of Humor. Although the
self-actualizing persons studied by Maslow had a sense
of humor, it was not of the ordinary type. Their sense
of humor was the spontaneous, thoughtful type, intrinsic
to the situation. Their humor did not involve
hostility, superiority or sarcasm.
ü
Creativeness. All of Maslow’s subjects were judged to
be creative, each in his own way. The creativity
involved here is not special-talent creativeness. It is
a creativeness potentially inherent in everyone but
usually suffocated by acculturation. It is a fresh,
naïve, and direct way of looking at things.
While
this last passage of points is relatively long. I have
noticed, in my travels, that most of the champions of
EMD can be identified with most, if not all, of the
above traits. This does not exclude others, of course,
that have not accepted EMD, as the focus of
self-actualization does have to do with the person’s
interests.
Exploring the Potential
– Motivation
What we
are left with is the need to explore how to motivate
others. A common method is fear – a motivating method
that is commonly used in sales. However, I, personally,
feel that this is a very weak means of motivating
someone. It stresses the basic deficiency needs but,
once the need is realized (ie: the technologist bought
the equipment or started the program), interest is
lost. As a result, while this is a short-term solution
for some sales organizations, it is not a successful
long-term strategy, including for sales.
This
fear also stands in the way of the application of EMD as
many, even self-actualized persons, can have a temporary
reduction of basic needs (ie: If I mess up, I could lose
my job), even if it is just perceived, concerning
technology.
Instead, the concept needs to be approached from a more
realistic side. There are several approaches that can
be considered, of which I will briefly explore two:
Cognitive Expectancy Theory; and, Humanistic Theories.
Using
Cognitive Expectancy Theory, we are given the equation:
Motivation = Perceived Probability of Success
(Expectancy) * Connection of Success and Reward
(Instrumentality) * Value of Obtaining Goal (Value).
All three must be of relatively high values and present
for motivation to occur.
Maslow
presents the Humanistic Theory, which provides that
their must be a combination of basic needs fulfillment
for motivation. From this standpoint, there are five
factors of motivation:
-
Instrumental
Motivation (Rewards and Punishers);
-
Intrinsic Process
Motivation (enjoyment and fun);
-
Goal Internalization
(Self-determined values and goals);
-
Internal Self Concept
Based Motivation (Matching behavior with
internally-developed ideal self); and,
-
External Self Concept
Based Motivation (Matching behavior with
externally-developed ideal self).
Factors
one and five are both externally oriented and influence
those who react to the immediate actions in the
environment. Factors two, three and four are internally
oriented, and influence those who are task-oriented.
By
taking a close look at transitions of persons from fair
to no interest in EMD to champions of the technologies,
we can explore which of these motivating means would be
more successful.
In each
case, the concept of a new technology drew a large
number of questions, as would be expected, from those
who became champions. The primary issues had to do with
one, or a combination, of the following:
ü
Fear of
new technology due to negative influence by competitors
(security – ie: loss of job)
ü
Fear of
making a bad call on a potential problem (security,
esteem, belonging)
ü
Fear of
making a purchase decision (security, esteem, belonging)
ü
Fear of
changing the status quo (security, esteem, belonging)
ü
Fear of
the reduction of esteem should it be the wrong decision
(security, esteem, belonging)
ü
Fear of
the unknown (security, esteem, belonging)
In
effect, the primary motivation for not moving forward
with technology is fear. The fears fall upon specific
basic needs. Therefore, the easiest choice is often the
choice to do nothing, in order to satisfy short term
basic needs.
Resolution – Getting Around the Negative Motivations
From a
corporate or reliability standpoint, EMD has been found
to be a ‘no-brainer’ once it has been applied.
Financial paybacks are normally presented in terms of
days and equipment availability increases. This is
known, and therefore, we shall consider fact.
The
problem, however, is that the concept of EMD is
relatively new (20 years) and has only come into its own
in the late 1990’s and strongest over the past 2-3
years. The vast potential for EMD has barely been
tapped, with less than 2% of potential applications
having been realized in the USA, alone.
The key
appears to be two-fold: Eliminating the basic needs
issue of fear; and, Expounding upon the rewards.
There
are several approaches that can be successful:
-
Eliminate the Fear:
So far this has been performed by companies or
individuals. Instead, the introduction of a
recognized organization, not affiliated with the
manufacturers of the technology, must be created.
Also, articles and information produced by users of
the technology must be presented and published.
Companies can reduce fear of failure by recognizing
that there are a minority of specialists, at this
stage in the technology, as compared to infrared and
vibration. The issues are also quite different.
However, the beginning has been similar to those
beginnings of well-accepted technologies. Ensuring
that training will be provided is an excellent method
of removing this issue, as well as the implementation
of recognized standards. Recognize that negative
attacks by competing technologies are strictly a
commercial reaction to a loss of market share and that
the best approach is to seek neutral users of the
technology for clarification.
-
Personal Recognition:
The application of the technology puts the
technologist in a unique position. At this stage in
the technology, he/she has the opportunity to make a
significant and measurable impact on the organization
and, should the person wish, on the industry. While
there are hundreds of authors on other maintenance
technologies, there are only a handful in the area of
EMD, just as with other emerging technologies.
-
Security: The demand
for EMD specialists is on the rise and experts are
extremely rare in all sectors. While the technology
is not a tremendous burden to learn, and some of the
technologies can be self-taught relatively quickly,
there is not a ready supply of EMD specialists as
opposed to vibration, infrared and other technologies.
-
Education: There
needs to be a continuous and expanding source for
education to provide support for the above points.
This can be achieved through a recognized
organization, which satisfies the need of belonging.
Conclusion
The
primary barrier for the application and acceptance of
Electrical Motor Diagnostics is Fear as it relates to
the basic needs. In order to combat this problem, we
must eliminate this fear and, instead, provide the
concepts of increased prestige, security, belonging and
ego (personal recognition) as primary drivers. The
minority of self-actualized individuals will not require
the same motivation as the majority, but will, instead,
emerge as leaders and champions of EMD.
The
best approach to building the EMD industry, and its
positive impact upon industry as a whole, is to present
the primary drivers of security, prestige and belonging
through education, communication and the development of
an organization. Industry can achieve buy-in, within
itself, by expressing job security, potential promotion,
prestige and understanding (ie: recognize the potential
for mistakes) by recognizing those individuals who are
willing to take risks, good or bad. The potential
economic return for industry is tremendous.
For the
individual technologist, EMD is a ground-breaking
technology with a limited number of experts who are
badly needed within industry. The technology has taken
hold and is no longer a risky proposition. With modern
technology, instruments and computers provide much of
the analysis, making the entrance to the specialty far
easier than with other technologies. By entering the
EMD and reliability job market, you are ensuring your
future with far more potential than the average
maintenance or reliability professional.
About
the Author
Dr.
Penrose is the Vice President of Electrical Reliability
Programs for T-Solutions, Inc. and can be reached via
email at:
howard@motordiagnostics.com or through
http://www.motordiagnostics.com
Bibliography
[1]
Huitt, William G., “Educational Psychology Interactive:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,” http://chiron.valdosta.edu;
February, 2004.
[2]
Patterson, C.H., “Maslow on Self-Actualizing,” http://personcentered.com” |
