I was sat in a meeting yesterday wondering what the best way is to motivate people to attend any 1 of 7 workshops we are running over the next two weeks.

To give you some background, we are working on a major skills project on behalf of Dott Cornwall. The objective of our project is to enhance the skills of people who are affected by redundancy, so that they can achieve better paid jobs, which are relevant to Cornwall's growing knowledge based economy. All of which we have taken very seriously.

So over the last few months we've focused on trying to understand where the future jobs in Cornwall are, in what sectors, geographical areas, based on significant European and regional investments.

We've invested much energy into trying to address the emotional and behavioural barriers that stir up in people affected by unemployment, so that we can provide a compelling proposition that genuinely helps people progress into new work pathways with confidence and a clear plan of action.

And our clients have been quick to understand the value we are adding amongst a complicated maze of support programmes already available to people in Cornwall.

But like other programmes, we have targets. Challenging targets, which are the projects main measure of success, and the key determinant of whether the project will continue to be funded. Which you can understand I guess. If we're adding value then it should be easy for us to achieve our targets. Right? Well, this is what got me thinking.

What if...

Instead of taking the methodical and creative approach we have taken, we offered a financial incentive, £50 let's say, £100 even, to people to attend these workshops? There's budget in our project. We could easily ensure that these people were eligible for our support. We could run general workshops, CV writing courses and so on. Job done.

Of course I feel it would be a travesty if we took this approach but you can understand the temptation, can't you? There's a great lyric in a Ben Folds Five song when Ben (the singer) describes the process of splitting up with his girlfriend as "like a bank teller blankly telling me have a nice life". And that's how it'd be if we signposted people into the wrong training, the wrong support, with no real interest in responding to their needs and motivations. Which is why we wouldn't dream of it.

The key to this project I think, and my vision therefore, is to change behaviour to such an extent that unemployment and redundancy isn't stigmatised or taboo. It doesn't leave people feeling helpless, unsupported, frightened, like they are in an ever decreasing circle. Instead, they receive expert mentoring, advice, effective signposting, information and services (and the opportunity to design better services) - all of which is based around their whole needs. This might sound ambitious but to me it's basic psychology. Cognitive therapy. Call it what you like, our project is about building a desire in people so that they go on to achieve success. That process takes time.