From our previous discussions (1, 2, 3) regarding Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, we’ve learned that motivation among human beings has long been quantified in terms of a first level of motivation–the biological or survival drive (hunger, thirst, safety, etc.). Beyond that, the second level of motivation is commonly described as the tendency of individuals to respond to rewards and punishments in their environment. Most businesses and work environments focus on motivation from one or both of these perspectives.
For several decades, a few scientists have been working to quantify and harness a third human drive—what many people call “intrinsic motivation.” This is a powerful concept and there is much interest now in closing the gap between what science knows and what business does.
Have you put some thought into how you can begin implementing ideas surrounding intrinsic motivation with those on your coaching team now, and those who you hope to attract to your team in the future? If not, I’ll attempt to point you in the right direction today. There is no way to cover this topic thoroughly in a few short articles, but hopefully I’ll have peaked your interest enough to read more about it.
The research on “Self Determination Theory” (SDT) as summarized in Pink’s book concludes that in order for a person to be intrinsically motivated on the job, their day-to-day work must contain autonomy, engagement, and purpose. I’ll summarize each of these principles separately:
Autonomy:
Our “default setting” as human beings is to be autonomous and self-directed. Unfortunately, circumstances, including outdated notions of “management” (including carrot and stick motivation techniques)—often conspire to change that default setting and turn us from being intrinsically motivated to just responding to external pokes, prods and incentives. To get past external motivation framework and engage a person’s third drive (and the high performance it enables), the first requirement is autonomy.
People need autonomy over tasks (what they do), time (when they do it), team (who they do it with), and technique (how they do it). Companies that offer autonomy, sometimes in radical doses, are out-performing their competitors. Examples include:
- Best Buy: Pioneered the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)
- Google and 3M: 20% “Work on What Interests You” Time
- Zappos.com and Jet Blue: Perform customer service based on “what makes sense” to the customer service representative
- Gore and Associates (makers of GORE-TEX): Follow the philosophy that “to lead a team, you have to assemble your own team and the members have to agree to work for you.”
Engagement/Mastery:
While extrinsic motivation requires compliance, intrinsic motivation demands engagement. If you’re a regular reader of WorkPuzzle, you know we’ve spent a lot of time on this subject.
Only engagement can produce mastery – becoming better at something that matters. And the pursuit of mastery, an important but often dormant part of our third drive, has become essential to making one’s way in the economy.
Mastery begins with “flow”—optimal experiences when the challenges we face are exquisitely matched to our abilities. Smart workforces therefore supplement day-to-day activities with “Goldilocks tasks” –not too hard and not too easy.
Mastery abides by three particular rules:
- Mastery is a mindset: It requires the capacity to see your abilities not as finite, but as infinitely improvable (Do you remember the growth mindset?).
- Mastery is pain: It demands effort, grit, and deliberate practice (Do you remember the Talent Code?).
- Mastery is an asymptote: It’s impossible to fully realize, which makes it simultaneously frustrating and alluring.
Purpose:
Humans, by their nature, seek purpose—a cause greater and more enduring than themselves. But traditional businesses have long considered purpose ornamental—a perfectly nice accessory, so long as it doesn’t get in the way of the important things. But, that’s changing—thanks in part to the rising tide of aging baby boomers reckoning with their own mortality.
From an extrinsic motivation framework, purpose maximization is taking its place alongside profit maximization as an aspiration and guiding principle. Within organizations, this new “purpose motive” is expressing itself in three ways: (1) in goals that use profit to reach purpose; (2) in words that emphasize more than self-interest; and (3) in policies that allow people to pursue purpose on their own terms. This move to accompany profit maximization with purpose maximization has the potential to rejuvenate our businesses with people who have an internal passion to do their best work.
There is a lot on this topic to digest. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or confused about how all of this could possibly be applied to your organization, let me encourage you to start making the application to your personal circumstances first. Is your job structured in a way that allows you to personally experience intrinsic motivation? If not, start making changes in how your own job is structured and what you’re subsequently experiencing in your daily work regimen. Build upon the intrinsic motivation you feel to make adjustments in how you interact with your team and impact your organization at large.
If you want to learn more, pick up one of Daniel Pink’s books or any of the great books that we’ve referenced over the last year in WorkPuzzle. We all have a lot to learn…
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you’re an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the “comments” link below.
