Flip the Script (L2)

Summary

In this activity, we investigate key mindsets and behaviors that contribute to positive work ethic by turning around a typical mock job interview. Students form their own questions to determine whether an applicant possesses work ethic. Students interact and submit a worksheet.

Learning Objectives:

Students will:

• define work ethic
• develop methods for successfully navigating job interviews
• determine personal motivation
• set an initial goal and progress
• recognize the importance of having a strong work ethic
  • demonstrating diligence (e.g., working with persistence to accomplish a task)
  • maintaining dependability (e.g., being reliable)
  • accounting for one’s decisions and actions
  • accepting the consequences of decisions and actions

Correlations:

This activity was created to be used primarily with WRS skill:

• 5. Work Ethic

California Career Ready standard:

• 8. Model integrity, ethical leadership, and effective management

Secondary WRS skills include:

• 4. Integrity
• 5. Work Ethic
• 7. Listening and Speaking
• 8. Respect for Diversity
• 10. Teamwork
• 11. Big-Picture Thinking
• 12. Career and Life Management
• 14. Efficiency and Productivity
• 18. Job-Specific Tools and Technologies
• 20. Professionalism
• 21. Reading and Writing

Icebreaker

Discussion: What motivates you?

Or use the following Pre-Activity Process Questions to create a quiz or start a different discussion.

Pre-Activity Process Questions

• How can you demonstrate good work ethic in an interview?
• How does motivation relate to maintaining good work ethic?
• What beliefs or mindsets do you need to have good work ethic?
• Describe the relationship between self-efficacy and positive reinforcement.
• Why do employers want workers with good work ethic?

Instructional Steps:
(What the instructor does)

Turn the interview around. You are the interviewer. What questions would you ask to determine if someone has work ethic?

Video (optional)

Teachers should view this video: Alfred Bandura via Scott Geller VATech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxpKhIbr0E&ab_channel=TEDxTalks) The Psychology of Self-Motivation

Decide if you want to show it or another work ethic / motivation related video. The following will emphasize some points made in the first video.

According to the video and behavioral research there are three things that can motivate you to action:

1. Self-efficacy: Do you think you can do it? Do you believe you will be successful?
2. Response efficacy: Will it work? Has my learning ensured that the work is possible and you might be successful at it?
3. Consequences: Is it worth it? What is the cost of doing it? What is the cost of not doing it? What might be the reward for doing it?

Background

There is a connection between motivation and initiative. If a task or job is more important to you, you are more likely to show initiative and use self-direction to accomplish it. You are less likely to give up without trying to achieve what you want. But our motivations often lie outside of the immediate tasks. They are part of our lives. Often the people who matter to us are at the heart of our motivations. We do what we do because of others.

You might believe in inspiration, for example, just as some artists believe in the muse, something from beyond them that alights unannounced and leaves too quickly. But you could view “inspiration” as something a little more real than that. Maybe it is caused by a stimulus based on how you are processing internally, an event, state, or feeling, that causes an elevated response. The concern is that if this type of inspiration just happened along, then the response might not be sustainable or repeatable. What if you did not need inspiration to alight? What if you could depend on being ignited to succeed. That’s where motivation comes in.

Think of actor William Shatner coming off his historic flight to space on Blue Origin. He said, “I hope I never recover from this. I hope that I can maintain what I feel now, I don’t want to lose it.” That suggests that he was both inspired and subject to some less definable magic from his brush with the stars. This feeling may well be inspiration. However, when it comes to your career, what is more important is finding the type of inspiration that you can count on every day and especially in times when you need it.

• Why do we continue to strive for improvement?

• Why do we continue to toil when we don’t feel like we are getting anywhere, or when the rewards are difficult to see?

Because we are motivated by something larger called purpose. Perhaps this purpose lies in someone else, your family or respect among your peers. Find your connection to purpose and you can begin to find meaning even in the smallest things you do.

American psychologist B.F. Skinner, whose research focused on observable behavior rather than internal events like thinking and feeling writes about autonomy and choice. If we believe we are making decisions for ourselves then we will be more responsible for those decisions, and we are more likely to feel better about work and be more productive. If, on the other hand, we approach tasks as if we have no choice and we are merely trying to avoid failure, the opposite will occur. Therefore, it begins with a mindset. It begins with ourselves and whether we are able to treat tasks as opportunities that benefit us in some way. In addition, community or social support, is critical to sustaining motivation and productivity.

Discussions

Next, discuss these motivation problems with your class. Or have them ask questions. Feel free to modify the answers accordingly. Ask the class to provide their issues or problems with work ethic, motivation and goal setting.

Problem: You can’t have motivation if you have no goals. How do I get goals?  

The fix: Even if you lead a life of lazy contentment, you must know that it is unsustainable and awarded to you by someone else. Why work at all? What happens if you don’t find a career? And if you agree to find a career, why not make it satisfying and engaging, or something that suits your interests and values? You have not taken charge of your life and you have no future. Circumstances change and not for the better, especially if you don’t strive to change them. Find out how you are contributing to your circumstance and do something to change it. Write it down. That is a goal. Get yourself enough goals, create a plan to achieve them, stay motivated and disciplined to those goals and those plans, and things will begin to change.

Problem: You can’t be motivated if you think of yourself as a pawn who is only shaped by events or conditions in the big world or your own home.

The fix: You are in charge of the change you wish to make. You have a choice no matter how larger events can sometimes sweep you up in them and no matter how much they might change the reality of your goals. If you only allow events to happen to you, even if you get lucky sometimes, you will be ruled by chaos. If you take charge, you will direct your own change. You will learn. You will improve. Think of one small thing you can do today that will make tomorrow less terrible, and do it. Do the same thing the next day but add a little more challenge. Soon, you will be meeting larger and larger challenges to change and to improve your life, and you will learn how to take on challenges and you will learn that you can succeed (self-efficacy).

Problem: My goal is too monstrously large.

The fix: Sometimes, big problems or longer-term tasks seem overwhelming. They can paralyze us. We end up not doing anything or getting further behind due to procrastination. The solution is to break it down. Take just one action, achieve it. Put it on a timeline or schedule to be reviewed at certain days. Achieve the small and build. It will be better the next day. You will build momentum. Rome was not built in a day. Baby steps.

Problem: I’m afraid of failure.

The fix: Fear is a mindset that can trap us, and it should never prevent you from taking a positive change. If you allow fear to control you, you will never achieve your goals. The best way to overcome your fears is to counteract them with positive action, even if it means asking for help. You are not alone and you probably know many teachers, mentors, friends and family that will help you, even if it just means being on your side. Imagine yourself as someone who refuses, out of fear, to become the person they want to be. Sometimes you need to take small steps forward. This gives you a sense of small success. It can also motivate you to take a bigger step tomorrow. Just remember, you got this, and you have people in your corner.  

Problem: I’m not making an impact.

The fix: Find meaning within any productive task, no matter how small and be aware of the amplitude of time. There will be days, maybe whole weeks or months when you will work without much to show for it. But you are building something more important: character. Do the day-in, day-out job with regularity and to the best of your ability, because people around you will take note. You will not only be building your professional reputation, but you will be learning self-efficacy—you will be learning that you can be successful when the time comes to make a larger impact. Sometimes it takes years to learn the mechanics of the work day. You give yourself a better chance at success and promotion if you can attach a greater meaning to the mundane. Also, asking for feedback on how you are doing is helpful. This could come in the form of a professional/performance evaluation, which typically has a set schedule. If not, request an evaluation to receive this feedback. It can really ground a person and reset their goals. And don’t disregard the personal acknowledgment of your service on the job.

Activity

1. Divide the class into groups to complete the activity. Groups of 6 should work best (please modify if you like). 
2. In a group of six, three will be applicants and three will be interviewers.
3. Job interviewers will interview each of the job applicants, confidentially. Job interviewers will complete a part of the “Interviewer’s Worksheet” (see worksheet in Materials).
4. Each applicant will also complete a portion of their worksheet, which includes an evaluation of each of the interviewers (see Materials).
5. Applicants should fill out the answer to their first question ahead of time: “What strengths do you bring to this job?” And they should think about the single question they get to ask of the interviewers at the end.

Note: It is important for the interviewers to know their questions should be focused on learning the work ethic of the applicant.   

Ultimately, top scoring applicants and interviewers will win this activity. Ask the top scoring applicants to share with the group to describe the process and others can join in. Try to stay on the topic of work ethic and how to portray it.

Artifact
(what the students complete)

• Either the Applicant’s or Interviewers’ Worksheets

Evaluation Method

Post-Activity Process Questions

• What did you learn from the interview activity about how to handle interviews in the future?
• What are your main problems when it comes to goal setting?
• What are your main problems when it comes to your motivation to reach your goals?
• What is likely to happen to your career dreams if you don’t develop a strong work ethic?
• How would you assess your current quality of work ethic? What can you do to improve?

Differentiation Method
(to address learning styles and disabilities)

• Students can prepare interview questions for someone at home.
• Students can interview someone in the workforce about their perceptions of work ethic and its value.
• Students can select video resources on the topic of motivation and work ethic.

Vocabulary

Students will complete vocabulary exercises related to this activity in Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/_afj95n?x=1qqt&i=wcwth

• accountability, willingness to take credit and blame for actions.
• autonomy, making one’s own choices
• character, the distinctive qualities that describe how a person thinks, feels, and behaves
• choice, the act of selecting among alternatives
• condition, context of one’s circumstance
• consequences, a result or effect of an action or condition.
• dependability, the quality of being trustworthy and reliable
• diligence, steadiness of effort; persistent hard work
• discipline, training to improve strength or self-control
• fear, the usual reaction when a stressor involves real or imagined danger
• inspiration, heightened stimulus that influences the emotions; or awareness of purpose as a motivation
• interview, a face-to-face (or by device) questioning of a respondent to obtain desired information
• mindset, the cognitive view that individuals develop for themselves; an attitude
• motivation, the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.
• positive attitude, an optimistic outlook that focuses on the good side of things
• professional evaluation, a formal meeting with an employee to discuss, with feedback, past performance and future direction
• purpose, the reason for which something is done; determination
• reputation, how the public views or regards something or someone
• response efficacy, an individual’s belief or confidence that performing a goal-directed behavior will contribute to achieving a desirable outcome
• self-efficacy, one’s sense of skill and effectiveness in performing a task or job
• work ethic, a commitment to the value of work