My Take on Motivation (and Why It Can't Be Created)
When I come across something that resonates with me, I experience a deep hum of agreement; it sits ‘right’ with me; I have examples from my past that support it. I have a feeling that I am ‘like that’ and there’s a good chance others are also ‘like that’. Motivation is something I often think about, and I’ve often thought, it ‘just is’. I want to bring together a collection of ideas around ‘motivation’, some are my own, and some are from authors whose words have me humming in agreement and nodding my head. I believe motivation is there; and when it comes to engaging others, trying to install motivation is a waste of effort, energy, and resources. (It’s also really easy to suppress, but de-motivation is a topic for another conversation.) The authors haven’t said it’s a waste of effort; the wasting effort part is my take and I’m putting it strongly because I think too often, people are fooled into thinking that extrinsic motivation - commonly called ‘carrots and sticks’ —has done the trick with employees, and they spend huge effort and resource on deciding which carrots and sticks to use, and when to use them… and they’re too busy thinking about carrots and sticks to think more about people and how we tick.
To get right down to it, extrinsic motivation exists, but it’s not lasting. No amount of reward, benefit, salary, bonus, praise, or acknowledgement can create the same deep, lasting motivation we get from satisfying our individual, intrinsic motivations in doing whatever it is that we do. Trying to trigger extrinsic motivation is trickery and temptation because it looks like it works, and it does - a bit, and briefly.
Skeptical? How long does the buzz of getting paid last? Are you as happy with your salary as you were with your first paid work? When I started babysitting I was thrilled to get paid to play with kids; what kept me saying yes to the jobs though, wasn’t the pay - it was the fun. Twenty bucks used to thrill me… when I was 13. Three and four years later, at 16 and 17, I wasn’t saying yes for the money, I was saying yes because I liked babysitting. I think we’re all like that to a degree. The jobs are more complicated than babysitting or paper routes (those used to be a thing!) and what keeps us going back is our dependence on earning, which might be mildly satisfying if we stop to think about it; but, I think it’s safe to say the thrill of a payday is gone and earning is just routine.
Though earning used to excite, it’s less so the longer we do it - but that doesn’t mean we don’t still need it. As responsible adults, we’ll still do it because food and shelter is good. Daniel H. Pink writes in his 2009 book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, that there are three motivations: a basic one that underpins all of our societal and economic structures that is all about survival, a second in which we respond to reward and punishment and a third that at the time he wrote it, was an “upgrade” of motivation defining a human drive to learn, create, and better the world. These words, written more than thirteen years ago, seem proven by time and match with my experiences in life. I work for the thrill of the work, because I like to contribute, I like to innovate, I love to communicate, etc… and yes, practicalities mean there’s pay - but that’s not what gets me excited about work.
These three motivations should sound familiar to anyone interested in human needs, because needs create motivation to meet them. The grandfather of human needs in psychology is Maslow, who has the often referenced Hierarchy of Human Needs; I always share that not only did he create this, but later in life, he modified it to have interconnection in a manner that transcends ‘self’, (NOT self-actualization as we usually see it) as the pinnacle and highest level need. Although Maslow’s Hierarchy is widely accepted in its original form, he spent the rest of his life researching and reconsidering. As he learned and grew older, he defined the type of motivation Pink references as the “third” as a drive to learn, create, and help make a better world; Maslow called this “self-transcendence’ (I use his later in life work often, as I find it so applicable in many cases and discussions.)
Of course, not all of our human needs will, or can, be met via work, but work is a big chunk of a person’s day, so what happens during work matters in a person’s life. Different types of work for different kinds of folks means there will be variety in which needs are met, and how they’re met. Some like a really routine day, and feel satisfied when they know they’ve gotten it done and met whatever needs they have (food, shelter, comradery, etc…). Others might stagnate in routine and need something ‘more’. The challenge for leaders then is leading an organization in a way that works for everyone. Yes, that is idealistic, but not impossible, because it does take all kinds of people to make work successful. That kind of organization is one in which people can grow and develop when they want to, which I see happening best in a learning organization. If time and resources were directed into creating an organization that fosters learning, both corporate goals and the human needs of employees would be better addressed.
Earlier, I described the buzz we get from rewards as fleeting; when it comes to work, if we assume that we are meeting human needs of employees because we have ‘carrots and sticks’ we might also assume that we’ll have satisfied and motivated employees. When we see dissatisfaction, motivation seems lacking; but here’s the trick - we can’t see motivation, we have to infer or assume it’s there or lacking. Leaders often wonder how to remedy or tackle this. Here’s the point I want to make - when we realize satisfaction happens when needs are met, we can see that employees need more needs, so they can use their ‘already there’ motivation. The buzz that lasts, or experienced often, is when employees are able to use the motivation they naturally possess as often and as much as possible. This is starting to sound more like culture than compensation, yeah? That’s where I think it’s at. Specifically, when work feels meaningful, challenging, and like there’s learning to be done and some kind of newness in a day, or comradery, then employees can meet many of their human needs while at work.
Yes, extrinsic motivation exists, rewards, benefits, awards can trigger bigger and better efforts from employees—and it works ever so briefly; but, humans adapt so quickly that we need more, and more, and more! I don’t know of any company that gives raises on the daily, but if they did, not only would the raises need to continue, they’d have to increase. Clearly, that kind of practice in any form won’t build or operate a successful company. Compensation should be at market value, fair, reflective of expertise, with appropriate benefits should be appropriate, etc… but that’s just not enough to keep employees engaged, enthusiastic, or satisfied. Intrinsic motivation is key; something in the work that satisfies employees - internally. It’s a kick. It’s learning. It’s enjoying interaction. It’s participating in team work. None of that is compensatory. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the expert on this kind of optimal experience, and he termed it ‘flow’. In his 2003 book Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning, he writes that “Fundamentally, business exists to enhance human well-being.”
Well-being at work isn’t guaranteed, but it’s more likely when leaders work to shape their organizations in ways that recognize how powerful their employees are when they bring intrinsic motivation to work with them. Motivation must be recognized, because it can’t be installed, even with the most clever rewards or devious punishments. It’s a resource employees bring with them every day. Whether it’s an advantage is up to the leaders.
This was organizational and leadership, looking at how practices affect employees; the next piece will individuals, looking inward and at their leaders, because perspective matters.
Recommendations for the interested-in-reading-from-the-sources people:
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, written by Daniel H. Pink. 2009. Penguin Books.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 2008. Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 2003. Viking USA.
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard B. Ross, and Bryan J. Smith. 1994. Doubleday Random House.
The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues, by Patrick Lencioni. 2016. Jossey-Bass.