Motivation - moving beyond sticks and carrots

Who doesn't like a stick?

Well, no one at the receiving end of one, for sure.

However, even experienced leaders and managers, when trying to motivate their followers, think of sticks and carrots. Only.

In fact, a reportee is lucky if “carrot” achieves some share of brainwave in her manager because sometimes it's all “stick”!

Management theory has traditionally equated motivation to the "right" mix of carrots and sticks or more eloquently put, "alternate kicks and kisses".

Renowned management thinker Daniel Pink characterizes this as Motivation 2.0. Motivation 2.0 presumed that humans responded to rewards and punishments in their environment. This is an incremental improvement on

Motivation 1.0 which presumed that human beings were just biological creatures struggling for survival. Thus motivation was considered entirely extrinsic.

In 1949, an American psychologist called Harry Harlow conducted a learning experiment on rhesus monkeys. The task involved solving a simple mechanical puzzle (pulling a pin, undoing a hook and lift a cover on a small device). Once the device was placed in the monkeys cages, they immediately started playing with it. In the absence of any rewards of food, affection, etc., the monkeys rapidly became proficient at solving the puzzle! Perhaps the motivation is the pure joy of having solved the puzzle.

Multiple new studies now suggest that humans also have a 3^rd drive (outside of rewards and punishments) – to learn, to create and to better the world. This is Motivation 3.0, which implies that motivation can also be intrinsic.

What are the implications for managers in the workplace?

Firstly, managers need to know the different types of motivation techniques, and when are each suited.

Extrinsic motivation may be of the following types:

1.     Status: Spot awards, public announcements of achievements, etc.

2.     Access: Allowing access to top management (lunch with the CEO, etc.)

3.     Power: A bigger set of responsibilities/ budgets, more reportees, etc.

4.     Stuff: Cash or other such perks

Extrinsic motivation has been shown to be very effective for quotidian tasks. However, when there’s even some amount of creativity involved, extrinsic stimulants reportedly fail. Speaking from personal experience, extrinsic rewards might even diminish performance. Economists call it the overjustification effect in which the external reward such as money, crowds out motivation for an inherently enjoyable task.

Enter intrinsic motivation.

According to Daniel Pink, there are 3 types of intrinsic motivation:

1.     Autonomy – Provide people freedom in doing work (e.g. 20% free time at Google). Specify the what, leave the “how” to the person’s discretion

2.     Mastery – Show people how the job helps in improving individual skills.

3.     Purpose – Help people appreciate how the work matters. How it impacts others.

Thus for roles that involve even a modicum of creativity, managers should seek to make the work intrinsically motivating to ensure top performance.

If we want our employees to innovate, we should ensure we just don’t throw money (or such “stuff”) at them. After all, you can’t bribe people to innovate. We should ensure that key tenets of intrinsic motivation are laid before expecting employees to do their creative best.

Finally, with work becoming remote worldwide, there is a large need to motivate remote employees. In today’s world, work consumes a lion’s share of our conscious lives and in many ways define us. Here’s hoping that we can move beyond the “carrots and sticks” and make work a truly enjoyable and fulfilling experience it deserves to be.