Piers Steel

Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s foremost researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Winner of the Killam Emerging Research Leader award, he is considered the top new professor at the University of Calgary, where he teaches human resources and organizational dynamics at the Haskayne School of Business. Steel’s research has appeared in countless outlets around the world, ranging from Psychology Today and New Scientist to Good Housekeeping and The New Yorker.

Aside from being a practicing procrastinator from an early age, Steel started formally studying the phenomenon while getting his doctorate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Working with Dr. Thomas Brothen, he had access to a class administered through a Computerized Personalized System of Instruction. That particular arrangement allows students to progress through a course at their own pace, but the program is well known for creating high levels of procrastination. Being a computerized course meant that every stitch of work that the students completed had a time-date stamp exact to the second, therefore, setting up the ideal setting for studying procrastination.  These techniques provided the results for his PhD thesis “The Nature and Measurement of Procrastination.”

Though researching human potential and performance from a variety of perspectives, Steel’s primary focus has continued to be procrastination. He conducted a series of projects to improve the measurement of procrastination, identify the prototypical procrastinator, and isolate effective self-regulatory techniques to prevent procrastination. Steel’s discoveries were published in his bestselling book, The Procrastination Equation.

Presently, Steel is setting up a behavioural lab at the University of Calgary to conduct cutting-edge procrastination research and partnering with the Seaman Family Centre to carry out neurobiological studies of why people put off despite expecting to be worse off.

Piers' Blog Entries:

Games People Play...at Work

The Motivational Wisdome of Lady Gaga versus The Secret

Thought for Food: How to Scientifcally Think Yourself Thin

• 2. Stop Putting it Off - Get to Yes

  From putting it off to getting to yes, procrastination occurs throughout the sales process. Sales professionals in all industries and sectors struggle with this dysfunctional delay, often with disastrous results. Instead of taking action immediately, they act too late,if at all. The result is lost opportunities, lost sales and even worse - disgruntled clients. Without a tangible deadline in sight, decisions and actions are postponed to the point of pain, resulting in emotional and financial turmoil, not to mention stress and sickness. The price of chronic procrastination is high and as the world continues to speed up and demands increase, will continue to rise if left unchecked. Those in a sales role are especially vulnerable to procrastination. Key personality traits that many sales professionals share - sociability, spontaneity and an outgoing nature - are also traits that are linked to a key cause of procrastination: impulsiveness. Fortunately, there are tools and techniques that when put to use and can provide immense benefit and massive increases in productivity and performance. Dr. Piers Steel shares these secrets in this educational, customized and energetic presentation.

• 1. Maximizing Motivation, Minimizing Procrastination

  The program focuses on leading-edge evidence-based techniques for maximizing motivation. The basic forces that determine when we are motivated and when we procrastinate are established. Why do we put off despite expecting to be worse off? Each participant is assessed in terms of their relative level of procrastination, that is how much they put off compared to others. Furthermore, a more detailed diagnostic test will be administered that identifies the underlying reasons for procrastination, providing the foundation for change.  
  
  We will then review six techniques that effectively reduce procrastination. Though customization is always an option, a recommended package includes:
  
  1.    Precommitment: Learning how to act now to stop ourselves from acting otherwise later.
  2.    Stimulus Control: We learn to maximize motivation by controlling environmental cues that direct us either to work or to play.
  3.    Wish Fulfilment. Fantasy and vision boards (e.g., from The Secret) actually damage motivation, making your dreams less likely to come true. A proven and effective alternative, mental contrasting, will be taught in its place.
  4.    Energy Allocation: The number one reason for putting off is that we are too tired. Use your own chronobiology to identify your peak productive times.
  5.    Productive Procrastination: This turns the procrastination impulse against itself, making periods of procrastination productive.
  6.    Goal Setting: Many rely on SMART goals, based on an early 1980s article about team management. In the last three decades, we have a better system for crafting motivational goals, the CSI Approach.
  
  At the end of each technique, we’ll take time to apply it to people’s own situation. The goal is to beyond people learning what to do but for the training to also transfer out of the classroom and into the workplace.
  
  Using everyday language, the workshop makes use of PowerPoint presentations, clicker polling, video clips, self-assessment quizzes, and in class demonstrations. Techniques are covered in the book The Procrastination Equation, but the content will not be exclusive to it. Additional materials covered in class will provided by handouts or electronic PDFs.

   

• 
  December 2010

  The Procrastination Equation

  If you think you are not one of the 95% of us who procrastinates, take Dr. Steel's test in The Procrastination Equation. Or if you think you procrastinate because you're a perfectionist, you're wrong. So, why do we surf the web instead of finishing overdue projects? Why do we say we'll start that diet tomorrow? Why do we stay up late watching television instead of going to bed? And how do we overcome these bad habits that we know work against our best intentions? Dr. Steel dispels the myths and misunderstandings of motivation and procrastination, replacing them with a clear explanation of why we put off until tomorrow exactly what we should be doing today.