Motivation and Hercule Poirot

Laughter, they say, is the best medicine; and I find in the last few months my tastes have changed considerably in terms of the kind of films I want to watch: much less action and more gentle humour and thoughtfulness.

I have discovered, to my surprise, the wonderful TV series of Hercule Poirot, starring David Suchet, fits the bill perfectly. Suchet is marvellous in the lead, the sets are great, the plots are usually convoluted and one has to try to exercise ‘the little grey cells’ to work out who is guilty, and there is
this overarching humour running through it all – the interaction between Poirot, Captain Hastings, Miss Lemon and Chief Inspector Japp. It’s easy viewing, certainly, but nonetheless enjoyable for that. I have not read the books yet, but I suspect I now may.

One element of the humour that regularly pops up in the film – a thread or element – is the mistaken belief, usually by the English, that the man they are dealing with is French; and this has always to be corrected by Poirot himself: he is of course Belgian. But why is this funny?#

In motivational theory Hertzburg came up with the idea of what he called hygiene factors in motivation. These were elements of work which whilst not necessarily motivating to anyone were necessary because their absence would de-motivate. For example, scarcely anybody would be motivated by a clean toilet at work, or would be motivated by good air-conditioning at work; however, take away these elements and one could be become seriously demotivated. Imagine going to work every day and the toilets were filthy, or going to work in offices where there is no air-conditioning and it is summer and 30 degrees outside!

This led me to reflect on the importance of the smallest detail in the creation of anything, if that something is to be successful. As Marcus Aurelius said, “the secret of all success lies in the organisation of the non-obvious”. Effectively, small details can act as hygiene factors which block success.

So back to Poirot, what is the hygiene factor? The brilliance of Agatha Christie’s creation is the fact that he is Belgian because it would never work – never work in England – if he were French! You could keep all the rest the same – the plots, the settings, the characters, the dialogue, the dress and so on – but the English could never accept or regard even as remotely credible a French detective advising – and outstripping, outperforming – our own Metropolitan Police Force. The idea is inconceivable. (As a sidebar on this matter in the real world: just recently David Cameron, our Prime Minister, faced insuperable obstacles in considering the American, Bill Bratton, for the post of Head of the
Metropolitan Police.)

This all goes back a thousand years to our love-hate (mostly hate) relationship withthe French – they are a ‘power’ (like the Americans now) and we do not wish to feel inferior to them. Curiously, Agatha Christie’s own creation was based on AEW Mason’s fictional detective, Inspector Hanaud of the Surete; but who remembers him now? No, he was French.

Belgium, on the other hand, doesn’t threaten our sense of self-esteem and self-importance at all. A small little country most English people now and then would be hard pressed to know much about. We did know back then – in the Twenties and Thirties – that the ‘awful’ Germans – another power – had invaded them and that we had saved them. We had gone to war to save the Belgians. What, then, if it produced one remarkable human being to whom we could express admiration and our thanks – for making England a safer place from murderers? Frankly, we like to patronise – we feel safe.

So hats off to Hercule Poirot – because he’s Belgian, and could be no other: that motivates us to love and accept, and to warmly invite him into our homes! It is just such a strange element of the story that makes this a multi-million pound success story. How motivating is that?