Instinctually, many of us may think that motivation at work is driven by money. Or maybe power. Or, in the case of some of us (ah hem) the mission of the organization for which we are working.
Daniel Pink, a smarty-pants lawyer-turned-motivation-researcher has spent four decades researching the idea of motivation.
The HOW of motivation:
In his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, he shares his findings about motivation which boils down to three main factors:
- The ability to direct our own lives, which he calls “autonomy”
- The ability, freedom, and space to learn and create new things, which he calls “purpose”
- The ability to do better by ourselves and our world, which he calls “mastery”
So what?
So, what does this mean for you and the teams you manage? Mainly, I think it means making space for you and your teams to engage in your work in those three ways. How can you help your team members to build their autonomy, purpose, and mastery?
This book, and the third factor in the list above, inspired me to integrate one super simple practice into my every-day management style. When I delegate tasks or make an ask of my team, I gave them a compelling “why” that is linked to the bigger picture of our work–why what we were doing was going to make the world better.
Now, let’s say that I was asking my team to do something mundane, like, say submit their milage report. How in the world would I be able to link that to saving the world? I admit that at the start of my practice, I had difficulty linking tasks like this to our mission. With practice, I became a pro. So, for this example, I would tell my team that by submitting their milage reports we could assure our donors and funders that we were responsible stewards of their donation, that we actually were doing consistent and meaningful work in the community, and that our timely report submission was a sign of our respect for them.
Pink fights against theories that folks are motivated “extrinsically” with short-term incentive plans and pay-for-performance schemes and the traditional carrot-stick motivation and punishment. Pink writes that those extrinsic motivators “can deliver a short-term boost — just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off — and, worse, can reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project.” That reduction in long-term motivation is partially due to the waining intrinsic motivation BECAUSE OF the extrinsic motivator–it is a vicious cycle once extrinsic motivators are introduced.
Examples:
I found two of Pink’s illustrative examples particularly compelling.
Swedish blood banks decided to change things up and pay people to donate blood. They anticipated the flood of clients into their blood banks. In fact, they saw blood donations plummet. Why? Well, you may have guessed. Turns out our motivation to donate blood comes out of the goodness of our hearts and not for literal blood money. The good Swedes are motivated intrinsically, not extrinsically.
The second example that I found compelling was about Encarta. Remember Encarta? It was a pet project of Microsoft’s Bill Gates. Microsoft paid big bucks to develop Encarta, the 1990’s CD-based encyclopedia. Microsoft eventually threw in the towel and admitted defeat. While Microsoft never publicly stated it, Wikipedia–an online encyclopedia with content generated for free by people like you and me out of a desire to share knowledge — defeated them summarially. Wikipedia contributor’s motivators are intrinsic and not the traditional carrot.
Who will benefit:
This book is most applicable to those who are managing people and teams. However, it is also tremendously useful to teachers and parents as they consider how to build motivation in children. I also find it particularly useful to consider as I develop trainings that meant to change behaviors over the long term.
Question for reflection:
We can and should build intrinsic motivation of our teams. I pose the question: How do you help to promote building purpose, mastery, and autonomy in your teams?
You can read the book, which I highly recommend. But, if you only have 18 minutes and 36 seconds, here is his TED Talk that describes some of the highlights of his theories.
Read more about how to help motivate your team here!
