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 3rd 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.