Sunday, November 1, 2009

How to motivate like an Egyptian king?

When Khufu, the king of Egypt around 2560 B.C., decided to build his Egyptian pyramid, he knew that turning thousands of men into an effective coherent workforce was more difficult than building the pyramid itself.Khufu understood the importance of motivation in working on such a big project. For that, he decided not to hire war prisoners to build his pyramid because these workers may not have any motives to do their jobs other than the fear of punishment. Instead, he convinced Egyptian farmers to work on his establishment and in return he would not forget them after his death and he would bless them forever. Also, he compensated them and their families with plenty of food, shelter next to the construction site, and time to go back to their farms in the plantation and harvest season.
Khufu built an effective organization structure by dividing the 25,000 workers into teams of ten men. Each team has been assigned to work on specific task of the construction, had a supervisor to monitor its performance, and was motivated to work hard by completing against other teams for prizes.Khufu was able to align the rewards with the goals and design an effective organizational structure based on group work and ongoing supervision which resulted of one of largest Ancient wonders that is standing still until these days.

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