AARP, the organization that serves elderly Americans in their retirement age asked a group of lawyers if they would be willing to lower their per hour legal assistance fee to a nominal thirty dollars an hour for AARP’s senior citizen clients. Elderly members of AARP generally have diminished sources of income and rely on pensions or social security for their livelihood and do not have spare money lying around to hire lawyers of their choice.
We all know these lawyers can cost into hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars per hour for their services. And they do not guarantee any outcome to the satisfaction of their clients. Still, whenever we get bamboozled by the dizzying questions of law, a lawyer is what we need. Lo and behold, these lawyers mulled long and hard over AARP’s charitable request and came up with their answer, No! like ‘No Way, Jose!’ They declined the request of lowering their legal assistance fees to a lowly thirty dollars an hour for AARP’s charitable intentions. Fortunately, AARP is also notorious for pestering and not backing down. They upped the ante this time. They sent another survey and asked these very lawyers if they could volunteer their services to their elderly clients, this time, for free, without any charge. To the giddy surprise of the bigwigs at AARP, majority of the lawyers this time answered in affirmative and agreed to volunteer their time free of charge for the same services which they had previously declined to accept.
Now, here is another story. A group of loud kids would often gather in an empty lot next to an old man’s house and play cricket there. Being the old geezer he was, he was up to his nose with their loud noise and playful pastime, but he couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t his lot to stop them from playing in it. He came up with an ingenious idea. He called upon them in their ‘playground’ and offered five dollars if they played for him in that place. The kids jumped at the idea of being paid for something they loved doing anyway. The things looked good for the kids until one day, the old geezer said, “Sorry boys! I can’t afford five dollars a game, I can only pay you one dollar.” The boys grumbled, but agreed to play begrudgingly under an unfair offer from the old geezer. A few more days passed, the old man stops in and says, “Boys! Sorry, can’t pay you anymore. Wanna play for free? Be my guest, or else!” The boys picked up their gear and never returned to play there anymore. Problem solved. Bribery effectively killed the motivation. The smell of dough took away the love of game.
This is the premise. This is the theory of today’s topic. We will try to dissect and analyze what made these lawyers decline a reduction in their fees, but still agree to do the same work for free. We will also analyze what made these kids stop playing the game they loved when the money stream dried up. We will also analyze how that motivation from the outside, also called the extrinsic motivation or external motivation strangles the motivation from the inside, the intrinsic motivation or the internal motivation. Let’s turn Motivation from the inside out.
Although motivation as a trait has its impact on every facet of a growing and productive life–whether at home or at work; for getting ahead in education or career; to raise a responsible child or to live a healthy and conscientious life, but for the purpose of this article, we will focus on How To Motivate People At Work. We will discuss the role of motivation in other areas of life in a different conversation of Keynote 180.
Motivation can catapult a sluggish trawl towards one’s goals into a sporty sprint, without the drag of ‘Aw! Do I have to do this?’ But, before we get into real motivation, or the motivation that rises from within our own gut–the internal motivation, let’s first get the bribes, the rewards, the incentives, the praise out of our way. In other words, let’s get the external motivations out of our way. The research on motivation psychology suggests that this kind of motivation does work, but only for repetitive, low-creativity, non-cognitive work that requires constant oversight. The examples of such works are: making sales calls, working at workline assemblies to produce a minimum number of products per hour, or being paid for services per client. Such tasks are motivated by external financial or monetary rewards. Such triggers of external motivation do work, but only in specific circumstances as mentioned earlier. Gestures of external motivation, like a certificate, or a gift card, or even cash can also serve as tokens of recognition to compliment an already-delivered product of internal motivation, but only after a goal has been accomplished, and not at the outset.
The internal motivation, on the other hand, has a very complex, but rewarding and fulfilling mechanism of automatic recharge of its own. It’s like nuclear energy; doesn’t need external fuel to generate its power. The intrinsic motivation process generates its own fuel. The fuel rods that generate the never-ending and perpetual energy in this process are made of the following five elements.
1. Purpose. Also called Relatedness, or common goal, or the company mission, or the organizational objective. These are all different names for the same thing. The work-site application of this element could be: hiring of employees or talent from a pool of candidates whose passion in life is a skill that an organization is making the money from. An example of this could be an entertainment company which hires people who love to perform their art in front of people. Another example could be hiring and developing of people whose personal goal is to make money. Giving them the support and training to use their skills for making money for the organization, and in return, sharing profits with them can fulfill the purpose for both. Another example of syncing of personal and organizational objectives will be communicating a sense of security and sense of belonging within an organization. The need for security and the need for belonging is the basic human as well as a corporate need. Syncing and communicating of these two basic needs will ensure the ultimate commonality of personal and organizational objectives. This is the first and the foremost of the five elements that fuel the internal combustion engine of motivation.
2. Autonomy. It’s the freedom of being able to make small decisions for oneself at a workplace. It’s the decision to choose a place for one’s work desk. It’s the decision to come in at a time of one’s own choosing. It’s the decision to plan and execute an assigned task to one’s own liking, as long as it does not hinder or obstruct other simultaneous tasks that are running alongside. It’s also the freedom from micromanaging. It’s the freedom from reporting every single step taken in the process and the freedom from logging every single keystroke on the computer. Autonomy fosters responsibility and internal accountability to the outcomes of a process as opposed to resignation to the subjection of a helicopter boss. Autonomy also leads to sense of belonging to a workplace, exactly the way it does at home where one is free to make small decisions for one’s own life. Autonomy leads to creativity, which in turn, builds self esteem. Companies that are flourishing have started embedding autonomy within their workplace and work time. The universities that produce the largest number of Nobel laureates offer almost unbridled autonomy to their faculty to pursue creativity. Gmail, Google News, were created by Google employees during their allotted free time. But, Autonomy is productive only when set upon a skill set that is correlated to the tasks that lead towards common purpose. That means you set your employees free only after they have been adequately trained on the tasks they are expected to perform independently.
3. Mastery. Also called Competence, this is the fluency and command in performing assigned tasks. Lack of skill to adequately perform a task not only hinders the flow, it also affects self-esteem and confidence, which are the essential building blocks of intrinsic motivation. Mastery comes through guided practice and judgement-free repetition of the tasks at hand. Effective training programs and mindful leaders make provisions to provide atmosphere of risk-free trial and error within an organization. Once a mastery of task is achieved, it automatically phases into a state of ‘flow,’ which makes the task enjoyable and rewarding for intrinsic motivation. This is the third element for the continuous autonomous supply of the nuclear fuel for intrinsic motivation. This is the stage where seemingly life-threatening stunts at Cirque-du-Soleil actually provide a thrill to their performers. This is the state where stage fright means nothing to a manager. Mastery is what makes people start loving their work. Mastery of work also serves as a great stress reliever for the frustrations that rise due to incomplete tasks or sloppy outcomes. Towards this end, effective leaders ensure their employees achieve a level of mastery through continuous support and training at whatever task they are assigned.
4. Challenge. To maintain a level of inner motivation, the tasks assigned or expected of an employee must be within the Goldilocks zone of the employee’s ability to perform. Easy or menial tasks unfit for the skill level of an employee are some of the biggest demotivators. Tasks that one considers too easy or too basic offer no sense of accomplishment, hence no real satisfaction in doing them. These tasks should also not be challenging to a level far above one’s existing skill set. That will also add to frustration of being incompetent. A task should be just a tad above one’s skill set, which would compel an employee to learn and improve upon certain skills before successfully performing a task. New learning in this process adds to one’s self esteem, which once again sets in motion the wheel of intrinsic motivation. So, adequate challenge is the fourth element of autonomous intrinsic motivation. Case in point are the situations where a highly skilled employee is assigned a repetitive, clerical task, or a task that one can perform without engaging much of one’s cognitive faculties or thinking abilities. A sense of detachment from the such tasks takes away the sense of belonging, which in turn, infests demotivation. All of these elements of demotivation have a domino effect. If one goes down, it takes everything else with it. On the contrary, the elements of motivation have a ripple effect or a tectonic effect. If one tectonic plate of motivation moves, it moves all the other plates of motivation with it, and so, a mountain of motivation is formed. And by the way, this is also how the geographic mountains have formed on this earth; with the movement and colliding of tectonic plates with one another.
5. Feedback. This is the last of the five elements of the nuclear fuel rods of motivation. A regular and specific feedback, critical or otherwise, is an essential element to staying on task. The best way to provide this sort of feedback is through the eyes and words of one’s own peers in small groups of 2-4 people. A GANTT chart or a Trello project management system also helps in staying on task. Regular frequent feedback is important to realignment and authenticity of a commitment to task. Feedback also provides an opportunity to share one’s progress and expect a boost of recognition for further progress on an assigned task, as long as this feedback is objective to the task and not directed at the person. A positive recognition by one’s peers and bosses, but only if it is authentic and specific in scope, serves as a great ignition for continuous subsequent progress towards one’s goal. This sort of feedback system also has a built-in mechanism of checks and balances to caution from things getting out of control in an atmosphere of guarded autonomy.
The process of fostering intrinsic motivation is not a straight line. It meanders through multiple twists and turns. Only the most accomplished managers in the art of motivation can harness the potential that skilled, yet unmotivated employees can bring to an organization. They can turn their lazy unmotivated employees into assets for their companies. The least even an average manager could do is to take away the processes, the routines, and the directions that demotivate employees. That alone can turn the motivation up.
In summing things up:
* You can’t pay or reward someone into motivation. Motivation must spring from within.
* Extrinsic rewards only work for menial, repetitive tasks.
* Inspirational quotes or stories only work as triggers. They don’t last long as intrinsic motivators.
* Basic survival of employees must be taken care of before expecting intrinsic motivation to achieving common organizational goals.
* The five elements of self-igniting intrinsic motivation are Purpose, Autonomy, Mastery, Challenge, and Feedback.
References:
Pink, Daniel H. Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Penguin, 2011.
Frank, Monica A. Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
https://www.excelatlife.com/articles/intrinsic_motivation.htm
