At one time, I worked as a Finance Manger at a small nonprofit theater company. The office staff included eight employees. There was not a reception included on the staff. So therefore, whenever the phone rings, everyone had to take turns answering the phones. If there was a staff meeting going on, then the phone would just ring and ring. There was a suggestion to update the phone system and have an automated operator to answer the phone to replace the analog used phones with a digital phone system. The automated digital phone systems save on the salary of a receptionist and allow the employees to be more productive with fewer interruptions. There were two workers that had been with the company from the start and wanted to keep the personal touch of having a real person answer the phone. The attitude that the workers with the most seniority exhibited is that there is no need for change and behaved with a great deal of resistance to the new phone system.
According to John Keller’s ARCS Model of Motivational Design, there are four steps for promoting and sustaining motivation in the learning process: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS).
Attention – To stimulates curiosity by posing challenging questions or problems to be solved. The problems solved were more productivity in the office with the use of the new phone system. The ability to have the phones answered when the office was closed and promote ticket sales.
Relevance – To establish relevance there was an establishment of future usefulness. The phone system with the automatic operator will be an asset to the company. The company can provide twenty four hour assesibilty to customers.
Confidence- To establish confidence the workers will receive a two day training course on how to use the new digital phone system. The workers will also receive information in reference to help desk numbers to call for problems that might come up in the future. Also, information is available to justify the cost of the phone system in reference to the long term return on the investment-ticket sales, more donor calls, and better customer service.
Satisfaction- to establish a sense of satisfaction, during weekly staff meeting workers will report on the benefit of using the phone system and the positive feedback received from customers or donors about the new phone system.
Reference
http://www.learning-theories.com/kellers-arcs-model-of-motivational-design.html
Blogs
http://www.fergusbisset.com/blog/tag/arcs-model/
http://whive.com/KingBee/blog/505/
