Motivating Others: 3 Key Elements to Leverage!
Let’s start this Prime Your Pump blog post with a little trivia. What do Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, Google Translate and Post-It Notes all have in common? I’ll give you a clue, it is related to a different way of motivating others.
Ok, While You Are Pondering That…
I have a problem for you to consider, followed by a question.
Yup, I am full of questions today!
I am going to give you 3 objects: a box of thumbtacks, a candle, and some matches.
Your job is to figure out how to use those 3 objects to attach the candle to a wall.
Any idea how you would do it?
One more question, last one I promise, then no more questions!
Do you think it would help you solve the problem faster if I added some type of incentive, such as giving you a reward such as money?
Ok, Before We Go Any Further…
Here is the solution to the candle problem. You will need to wait for the answer to the Google and Post-It notes question from the introduction.
The solution is to empty the box of thumbtacks, and then to use one of the thumbtacks to fasten the box to the wall and then put the candle inside the box as shown below:
There is a Method to My Madness!
The candle problem is a famous one created in 1945 by a psychologist named Karl Duncker. It has been used in many experimental studies in behavioral science. The problem necessitates your overcoming a phenomenon called functional fixedness. In other words, many people view the box simply as a device to hold the thumbtacks. The key is to be creative and come up with another function for the box, which is a platform to hold the candle.
Now that we understand that you need creativity to solve the problem, let’s connect the dots and address the second question I asked you. I asked you if you thought you could solve the problem faster if I incentivized you with a reward such as money.
In His TED Talk, “The Puzzle of Motivation”
Bestselling author Daniel Pink discussed how a researcher from Princeton named Sam Glucksberg used the candle experiment to demonstrate the power of incentives.
He had 2 groups.
In the first group, he told them he was going to time them to see how long it took them to solve the problem. He explained he was timing them merely to get an understanding of how long it took the average person to solve it.
With the second group, he told them if they were in the fastest 25%, they would be given a $5 reward. And if they were the fastest overall, they would be given a $20 reward.
If You Are Wondering How Much Faster the 2nd Group Solved the Problem…
That’s not how it went down!
Incredibly, the group who was offered an incentive took 3.5 minutes LONGER than the first group!
You would think that if you want people to work faster all you need to do in terms of motivating others is to offer them some type of extrinsic reward, right? WRONG! It turns out that incentives do not increase creativity and focus your thinking, instead they block your creativity and impair your thinking.
But, Hang On, There is One More Thing We Need to Discuss…
The experiment was done in a different way by Dr. Glucksberg. Instead of giving them the matches, candle, and box of thumbtacks, he gave them the matches, candle, and the thumbtacks and box separately.
Now it was obvious to the subjects that the box was part of the solution which eliminated the need for creativity. In this experiment, the incentivized group performed better than the first group.
What Does This All Mean?
What this all means is this – incentives or rewards do work for motivating others in some circumstances. However, for a lot of tasks, they don’t work at all, and in many cases, they can actually do harm!
External rewards can work well for motivating others to do routine, ruled based tasks that don’t need a lot of creativity.
But for jobs that require conceptual or cognitive skills and creativity, those external rewards can narrow our focus and be counterproductive for motivating others.
According to Pink in his TED Talk, “What’s alarming here is that our business operating system — think of the set of assumptions and protocols beneath our businesses, how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources– it’s built entirely around these extrinsic motivators, around carrots and sticks. That’s actually fine for many kinds of 20th-century tasks. But for 21st-century tasks, that mechanistic, reward-and-punishment approach doesn’t work, often doesn’t work, and often does harm.” 1
Ditch the Carrot and Stick
Many of the jobs that were previously conducive to incentives or rewards have been automated or outsourced – think computer programming, financial analysis, and certain factory jobs to name a few.
The problem is that there is still a disconnect between what we know about motivating others and what most businesses still do.
The key to motivating others who need to be creative and use their cognitive skills is to utilize autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
How to leverage autonomy, mastery, purpose
According to Pink, “The good news is that the scientists who’ve been studying motivation have given us this new approach. It’s built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, they’re interesting, or part of something important.” 1
He offers three elements of intrinsic motivation that can be leveraged for jobs that require creativity and other cognitive skills for motivating others: autonomy, mastery, purpose. Using these 3 elements can help you ignite people’s intrinsic fire:
Autonomy – being able to direct our own lives and have some control over what we do.
Mastery – having the opportunity for improvement.
Purpose – being part of something that we are connected to.
Let’s look at a few specific ways that we can use for motivating others using autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Autonomy – How to Establish It…
Consider giving employees some autonomy over time, technique, task and team while ensuring they are still accountable. It’s a delicate balancing act, but it can be done. Some ideas are:
Time: flexible hours or working from home.
Technique: instead of telling people exactly what to do, let them know what you need to be done and leave the ‘how’ to them.
Task: giving employees the option of working on projects that interest them.
Team: giving employees freedom of who they work with.
Mastery – How to Establish It…
Mastery is all about giving people an opportunity to make progress in their work and have an opportunity to get in the flow state. Some things you can do are:
Give them tasks that aren’t too easy (they will get bored) and aren’t too difficult (they may give up). Challenge them just outside their comfort zone.
Make sure they have clear goals and objectives.
Ensure they receive timely feedback.
Keep things fresh by adding new challenging tasks.
Purpose – How to Establish It?
There are a few ways to utilize purpose to create intrinsic motivation:
Make sure the mission is clear.
Show them how what they are doing is contributing to the overall mission.
Explain why things need to be done.
Back to Our Trivia Question from the Introduction…
The question again, what do Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, Google Translate and Post-It Notes all have in common? The clue I gave you was that they are related to a different way of motivating others.
The Answer?
Many companies, including 3M (in the mid-20th century) and Google, give their employees the autonomy to work on any project they want. In Google’s case, it is 20% of their time and has led to such famous products as Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, and Google Translate amongst others. In 3M’s case, it led to Post-It Notes.
Until next time, leverage the concept of autonomy, mastery, and purpose for motivating others, and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick
Use It or Lose It – Motivating Others Using Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
For motivating others better, use autonomy, mastery, purpose strategies as we just discussed.
When to Use It
Use autonomy, mastery, purpose when you want to increase intrinsic motivation for motivating others to accomplish tasks that require creativity and other cognitive skills.
What Do You Think?
Have you used any of these ways for motivating others? Please share in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!
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References
1 The puzzle of motivation – https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation/transcript?language=en
Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
Hello Rick – – We are still hanging in there out on the left coast. 42 cases of virus reported in town, but so far no deaths. I need to be especially careful since I am still in recovery mode, and probably will be for another few months.
I solved the candle problem in under a minute. Having never used gmail, google news or google translate, I went nowhere on that question. But I do like sticky notes – they make great bookmarks. We tried google maps on our trip to Florida last year – it sucked royally. Thank goodness Joan’s porta-phone contained a second mapping program.
Under the heading Autonomy – How to Establish It , you list Time : flexible hours or working from home. That’s the new way of life out here, working from home. Both my daughter and SIL are in the work from home mode. For them, its inefficient, since they are cooped up with an active 5 year old full of energy.
Hey Dave, thanks for the great comment, and glad to hear you are doing well. It will be interesting to see how the next few months play out. Yup, everyone is working from home here too, and it is just as well! Keep staying safe and talk soon! Rick