I read a good book recently by Daniel Pink called “Drive. The surprising truth about what motivates us”. I recommend it. But you don’t really need to read it as the principle is simple and I’ll give you a quick summary of the key messages for free.
The book really makes the point that many of us do lots of things not because we have to, but because we want to. Think of everyone who spends hours and hours on hobbies without getting paid or who do voluntary work. Why? Because they choose to and they get a sense of satisfaction from it. The book argues that we need to find ways to tap into this “intrinsic” motivation rather than relying on traditional things such as pay - which is classed as “extrinsic” motivation. As soon as we offer the kids a fiver to empty the bins they will forever expect a fiver when asked to do household chores.
Make the link to work and the psychology shows us that using carrots and sticks are less effective in terms of motivating people to sustained levels of performance over the long term. It might create a spike in the short term, but not the long term. But, of course, we all need a certain level of income to live. We all need to ensure that we can pay the bills, but beyond that we look for greater things. Also for certain jobs which require a level of routine, reward in terms of extra pay might produce higher levels of productivity, but where jobs require a level of creativity or problem solving reward in the form of pay does not produce additional levels of performance.
To make us feel truly motivated at work we need to find ways of enabling people to want to do what they do rather than have to. In fact we can’t make people feel motivated we can only create an environment that is motivating! The issue is that as soon as we link people’s efforts to pay then what they do becomes work and work is by definition a drudge. Think of your hobby. If you suddenly had to produce what you do in order to earn money then I guarantee you would enjoy it significantly less. Enough of the theory, two recent experiences to demonstrate the point….
Firstly, the negative aspect. We recently had a weekend camping in Poole. Without the kids. Highly motivating, but not the point. Yesterday I received a gift from Dorset Police letting me know that I had been done for speeding. Irritating. The reason though is that the feeling of being “enforced” made me feel incredibly frustrated. It’s not the points as I currently have no points on my licence so I can live with three. It’s not the cost either and it’s this that links to the above. If there was a special lane on the motorway where there was no speed limit, but you could pay, say £500 extra per year to use it I would do it like a shot. Not because I’m a teenage speed freak, but because I would be happier paying to choose how fast I go rather than being constrained on how fast I can go! I know it’s the law, blah, blah, blah, but it kind of makes the point. Will it stop me speeding? Unlikely. All that will happen is that I’ll put it down to bad luck and buy a speed camera detector to get around the constraint. Your people will do the same – they’ll spend more energy finding ways around the ‘rules’ than if you didn’t have rules in the first place.
And now for the positive. I just watched “The Undercover Boss”. Basically Chief Exec’s of companies go back to the “front line” to see what life is really like. During the programme they meet some really interesting characters. Two examples spring to mind. There was one guy working for Tower Hamlets Council who had created his own vision for the market he ran including a computer generated image of how the market could look in the future. Not because he was asked to, but because he wanted to. There was another guy who worked for a recycling company who insisted on keeping the site clean just in case members of the public came on site. Not because he was asked to, but because he wanted to. Oh, and all whilst he was suffering from cancer and taking holiday for his treatment rather than going off on sick leave. At the end of the programme the Chief Exec reveals themselves to the people they have met and rewards their good work – not with money, but with a thank you. None of them have turned round and asked for more money and without fail they have all welled up with pride and replied along the lines of “hearing a thank you means more to me than anything else in the world”.
The point is that there are lots of people in companies who put in huge amounts of additional effort because they want to. If you manage people then rather than trying to write policies and procedures designed to stop people doing things, why don’t you find ways to encourage them to do more of the innovative things they are already doing? The book highlights three ways to do this:
1) give people a clear sense of purpose.
2) give them autonomy to decide how they do their work.
3) provide challenging work that is neither too easy nor too difficult for people to do.
Oh, and say thank you once in a while….
Paul Everitt
http://www.rworld.co.uk/
0 comments:
Post a Comment