How to Motivate

I can't stand it when people try to use guilt trips on me. It feels so manipulative. However, appropriate motivation works wonders. Here's a good example of how to appeal to people's sense of responsibility without resorting to a guilt trip:

In one of my classes, we have been assigned to watch an oral argument before an appellate court. People asked the professor what kind of documentation he wanted to prove that we did it. He said that he didn't need any documentation. He talked about how he is a big believer in the honor system and that as lawyers, we need to be scrupulously ethical in all of our dealings. He told us that we were on our honor to complete the assignment and that he will not be checking to see if we did. He reminded us that this meant that there would be no penalty for failure to watch an argument, but that we have an obligation to fulfill the assignment because we said that we would.

Now, I can be a bit of a slacker at times. I'm notorious for doing the bare minimum to get by when it comes to homework. If it's not graded, I'm not likely to want to take the time to do it, since I have so many graded things to do. However, after a speech like that, there's no way I'm going to skip the oral argument. I'm not going to violate the trust my professor has placed in me.