Introducing our latest awesome Author: James Ellis from The Framework Group Is Choice The First Casualty in the Worker’s Compensation War? Every day we make decisions based on insufficient information, informed by our biases and shortcuts, which ironically, we’re also ignorant to. Even in the google and wikipedia enhanced era of information technology, oversimplification constantly tempts us. I spend most of my time guiding people through the workers compensation maze, and I’ve noticed that oversimplification is pervasive in this domain. It is not uncommon in my work to meet people who feel disempowered. Both workers and employers. Workers who have lost their sense of self identity, their self esteem and, ultimately, their motivation. I also meet employers who feel like they have no control in an unwieldy system. Their premium is unpredictable and a poor indicator of their commitment to their team. This was certainly the case with Brian who I met last month. He’s a manager of a shop in a chain of stores and was adamant that he wouldn’t lodge a claim despite clearly injuring his shoulder at work. He used to work for another organisation and told me that “he knows how compo works and wants none of it….I’ll get depressed and lose my job and the company will get hit by higher premiums…no one wins”. Brian also thought he needed a week off, but was worried about how his staff would perceive his taking “time off on compo”. Brian’s case is typical, but his insight is unique. He expressed concerns for himself and his employer. That’s unusual. His experience has been that it doesn’t take long in the workers compensation system to lose your humanity and your employer’s money. What was motivating Brian’s decision making? It’s always tempting to draw a simple conclusion but the fact is, I had just met Brian and although we had rapport, we didn’t yet have a relationship. Guessing at his motivations was tempting, I love a simple solution as much as the next bloke, but do I really know Brian at this point? “For every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s usually wrong” H.L. Mencken I’m a parent, a business owner, a client, a student, a teacher, a physiotherapist, a counsellor, a husband and a son. All of these roles involve efforts to persuade and to motivate. I find myself trying to motivate others to learn, to recover, to re-engage, to change entrenched beliefs, to manage pain and to better relate to each other. Inferring and analysing the motivation behind others’ decisions is an ongoing and daily exercise. Edward Deci is a director of the human motivation program at the University of Rochester and co-author of WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO with Richard Flaste. They open their book by stating that; Control is an easy answer. It assumes the promise of reward or the threat of a punishment will make the offenders comply. And it sounds tough, so it feels reassuring to people who believe things have …

Source: www.safetyrisk.net