Motivation

While this post isn't linked to any particular book; Dan Pink gave an excellent Ted Talk on the issue of motivation in the age of the knowledge worker. I won't summarize his talk because you can watch it for free over at ted.com but a friend of mine posed the question recently on motivating employees in the age of the knowledge worker and it got me thinking.

I keep this on my whiteboard at work: Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose. It is a summary of Dan Pink's message. If you can give people these three things it will increase their motivation. I like to think that most people aren't born lazy. They end up that way because when they try to go the extra mile they get shut down, or when they try to learn something new they're told not to bother...

Here are my thoughts on why Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose work. We'll start with Purpose. When the employee knows what the company goals are and gets rewarded for helping the company achieve them; it creates a sense of purpose & engagement. It is basic human instinct to seek out and repeat scenarios which reward them. Who doesn't like getting rewards? Note, there are many ways to reward employees and while Dan Pink emphasizes that monetary rewards don't work well for knowledge workers (because they cause them to narrow their focus), I disagree with him. Let's just say that rewards exist and rewarding your employees when they do a good job is a good thing.

Now, when your employees have a sense of purpose and direction it is time to allow them some Autonomy. If you allow your employees the freedom to make decisions for themselves, and I mean important decisions (decisions linked to the company purpose), you will be letting your employees try to improve themselves and the work they do. If it motivates the employee and nets an improvement on the company purpose then how can that possibly be a bad thing? Oh sure, they'll make mistakes, but they must be allowed to make mistakes so that they'll learn what works and what doesn't. Humans learn best from trial & error and by making mistakes cost very little you'll let them learn a lot.

This leads me into the third element of motivation: Mastery. Let your employees make mistakes so that they are able to learn. Now I don't suggest you let an employee repeat the same mistake time & again, but allowing them to make the first mistake and helping them see why it was a mistake and suggesting an improvement will result in better, more motivated employees, and some that will serve to improve the company position in the marketplace.

I hope you can see that all three elements go extremely well together: By guiding your employees with a Purpose and allowing them the Autonomy to try new things and become a Master at what they do; you're serving to motivate them and possibly even improving the bottom line at the same time.

Cheers,
~ Jon