How to Motivate Someone #3 - Using the Motivation Triangle

John F. Kennedy’s 1962 Rice University speech is replete with motivational triangle messages.

We have chosen just one of the many motivation triangle sentences from this single speech to illustrate how you use this triangle.
I quote, "The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space."

Let’s start with what each part represents. And we will start with resources. Not because it has to come first, it really does not matter which of these you commence with, so long as all three are present in the same thought.

Resources

Resources are whatever the other person has that you want to use.
They may have knowledge, skills, money, goods, supplies, connections, power. Whatever resources that person, or those people, have available to them.
In Kennedy’s speech, resources here are represented by the word, nation.
Like all great leaders, Kennedy set up the audience. And by now, all listeners understand that here, the word, nation, is loaded with meaning. It is the people, the skills, the knowledge, the wealth, the desire. Everything that the nation embodies. And you will realise, that the money alone, whilst seemingly small these days, when you compare it to the bail out of the US banking system. But in 1962, this was a huge amount of money. All of it coming from tax payers.

Values

The second aspect in the motivation triangle is, values. These are the values of the other person, or people.
Kennedy refers here to being the leader, a prized value for US citizens. It connects to being first, that is, winning. Part of the set up before this sentence.
Kennedy also uses the, away from, motivation. Many people are motivated to get away from something over going towards a new thing. In this case he says, not, stay behind.

Goal

Thirdly, there is the goal.
This may be your goal as the leader, or it can of course be the other persons goal, when you are coaching them.
The goal in Kennedy's speech is the, race for space. Implying landing a man on the moon. But that part actually comes later.

Motivation

The motivation triangle is simply to communicate to the other person, that you want them to use their resources to achieve a specific goal and this will be of value to them personally.
The result is motivation.
Remember, motivation is the fruit of the evaluation of goals and resources used to achieve it. It is motivating only when the evaluation is valuable to the other person.