Motivation is the fuel ⛽️ that drives talent 🎨.

So how can a business truly motivate people?

Old thinking tells you to create a system based almost exclusively on carrots & sticks. Extrinsic motivators like money (salary, bonuses, commission, car,…) & punishment (being fired, ridiculed,…). Yet it does not work (any more)… and it often even does harm.

New thinking tells us we can motivate people beyond basic tasks (eg: decision making, creativity, higher order thinking,…) by focussing on intrinsic motivators. These can be divided in 3 building blocks: autonomy , mastery and purpose.

Todays Business Operating System focusses on intrinsic motivators (check out sources below):

🚁 Autonomy (intrinsic): we desire to direct our own lives and work.

To do: Have people set their own goals and make their own decisions within the strategic vision of the company. Increase autonomy radically when choosing priorities, techniques, resources. Make sure everyone feels to be capable and agrees with the strategic vision of the company… eg: ROWE = Results Only Work Environment.
(top-down management works if you want compliance; if you want engagement self-direction works better)

🧙🏽‍♂️ Mastery (intrinsic):  we like to get better at stuff.

To do: Create continuous and constructive feedback loops so learning becomes a second nature. Cultivate a growth mindset. Invest in training. Cumulative 1% improvements.
(hiring people to simply “get the job done” based on the skills they already have today misses the point of growth and opportunity that lies in each individual)

🎯 Purpose (intrinsic): to be part of something meaningful and important beyond our own selves.

To do: State the companies purpose above all else and make sure it is understood and shared by everyone. Show how every individual can and is contributing to the overall purpose. eg: (audacious) fundamentally change and improve an industry; (In B2b) making partners more successful; (social profit) create opportunities for others;…
(when pure financial incentives are dominant or even disconnected from the companies purpose bad shit happens. Unethical behaviour, bad quality products, lousy service,…)

So what about money and punishment? The old and intuitive way of doing things…

🤑 Money (extrinsic): pay people enough to “take this issue of money off the table”.

To do: offer higher fixed salaries, minimum (or no) individual commission or bonus schemes, in other words an “enough” approach.
(goes against the mainstream approach that largely focusses on money rewarding schemes as the way to motivate people. Specifically “high performers”.).

⛏ Punishment (extrinsic):  counter-productive approach that has to be eliminated from current days business practices.

To do: create a context where taking ownership is by definition a positive, where failure is an opportunity to learn collectively, where mistakes are never a taboo.
(goes against the mainstream approach that relies heavily on a logic of blame, punishment, endless rules that lay out individual quid pro quo to scare people into shape).

Once we have the right people on the team, let´s make sure we get the motivation piece right. And this will mean going in against old school thinking…

Small decisions with a big impact 💥.

Sources (aside from own experience): Dan Pinks 📕 Drive and his 🎤 TED talk “the puzzle of motivation”. Interesting summary in this 📹 animated RSA clip.