Primal Management: The Five Social Appetites

Paul Herr's book entitled Primal Management is about the five social appetites that most companies tend to neglect.  It defies the workplace adage 'nothing personal' because the book explains that whether we like it or not, our emotions affect our decisions and our behavior.  The old school belief that the workplace should be ruled by the mind will be negated by the scientific study of the author and relating those studies to his personal experiences.  It will teach companies on how to achieve its goals by motivating their employees.  Here are the five social appetites:

1. Cooperation Appetite - No man is an island.  We all need to belong to a group and feel that the group accepts and value us.

2. Competency Appetite - We all like to learn new things and if the company could not provide its employees a structured training program for different levels, they tend to work inside a box.

3. Skill-deployment Appetite - We all want to hear words of praise from time to time from our boss and even our co-employees if we have done a good job or even if we have done a not-so-good job, a pat on the back or words that everything will be okay are enough to motivate us to do better next time.  It says in the book, to logically explain this appetite is if a man is hungry, he will instinctively look for a place where he can gather food and eat.  This is true.  If you could not remember the last time you heard 'attaboy' or 'attagirl', there is a tendency for you to think that you have to look for another job.  I believe this is the most neglected of all the appetites.

4. Innovation Appetite - In the animal kingdom, humans are the weakest because we do not have sharp teeth or talons to protect ourselves from predators.  Imagine if our ancestors did not discover fire or did not learn how to make spears--we would not be here, we are extinct.  Imagine if Ferdinand Magellan believed that the earth is flat--I bet a place called Philippines would not exist.  If bosses tell their employees that there is no way, everyone will end up working like robots.

5. Self-protection Appetite - In the book, survival of the self sometimes becomes more important than the survival of the tribe.  We all have tendencies to think first on what is good for us, selfish as it may sound, but that is the truth, so if the first four appetites were not fed, admit it, we will all just move away from the tribe and look for a better tribe where all our appetites will be fed.