Motivation Theory

Part of The PIRATE Way — Stories about scaling up engineering teams

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Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

The topics covered in this series of blog posts are heavily focused on motivation, so it’s important to establish some basics.

There are numerous excellent books and online resources that delve into these topics, many of which are based on or inspired by the self-determination theory (SDT) or its evolution, such as Drive by Daniel Pink, BICEPS by Paloma Medina or many others.

Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in an activity because the activity itself is rewarding, whereas extrinsic motivation refers to working toward an external reward or goal. While the posts will primarily focus on fostering intrinsic motivation in talent, it’s essential not to ignore extrinsic motivation completely.

There are four pillars for fostering intrinsic motivation, which can be remembered with the acronym RAMP:

• Relatedness/Belonging: The desire to interact with others, feel connected, and experience care. Secure and stable groups perform better in mastery-oriented behaviors than insecure and unstable groups.
• Autonomy/Freedom: The ability to govern oneself and be successful as oneself. When people are autonomously motivated, their performance, wellness, and engagement are heightened compared to when they are told what to do.
• Mastery/Progress: The ability to become the best version of oneself, empowering the individual to reach mastery with support from others. Positive feedback generally fulfills the need for competence and drives growth and progression.
• Purpose/Mission: Working toward something larger and more important than oneself, such as company mission or team goals. Aligning and connecting team members with company goals is an effective way to increase intrinsic motivation, such as using OKRs.

Gamification

When I took the Coursera Gamification training from Kevin Werbach in 2013, I never anticipated its vast impact on my career. Initially, I was motivated to learn new skills applicable to product creation and driving behavior, much like reading books like Hooked (Nir Eyal), Don’t Make Me Think (Steve Krug), and others.

However, I soon realized this training was also inspirational for deploying an organizational design fostering a great culture. While many great books and online resources are available on this topic, let’s start by reviewing the Hex Players Types schema from Andrzej Marczewski.

• Disruptors: who are motivated by change and seek to disrupt systems to force positive or negative change.
• Free Spirits: who are motivated by autonomy and self-expression and enjoy creating and exploring.
• Achievers: who are motivated by mastery and enjoy learning new things and overcoming challenges.
• Players: who are motivated by rewards and will do what is necessary to collect them.
• Socializers: who are motivated by relatedness and want to interact with others and create social connections.
• Philanthropists: who are motivated by purpose and meaning and want to give to others without expectation of reward.

As a team, it’s essential to ask yourself,

“What type of players do you want or do you need?”

My hypothesis is that most of the members of a product-engineering organization would fit with free spirits and achievers. So, continuing with the gamification literature, let’s see what tools and mechanisms are usually deployed in a gamification strategy for Free-Spirits and Achievers.

Free-Spirits

When designing a serious game for the Free-Spirits type of player, you should consider some of the following tools and mechanisms:

1. Creativity and Exploration: Free-Spirits are motivated by autonomy and self-expression, so they need an environment that fosters creativity and exploration. You can include tools that allow players to create their own content, such as customizable avatars, customizable game elements, or user-generated content.
2. Open-Ended Objectives: Free-Spirits prefer open-ended objectives that allow them to pursue their own goals and interests. You can design a game with objectives that are open to interpretation or that can be achieved in different ways, giving players the freedom to pursue their own path.
3. Collaborative Play: Free-Spirits enjoy collaborating with others and sharing their creations. You can include collaborative gameplay mechanics, such as team challenges, social features, or multiplayer modes, that allow players to work together and share their achievements.
4. Feedback and Recognition: Free-Spirits enjoy recognition for their creativity and achievements. You can design a feedback system that provides positive reinforcement for player accomplishments, such as badges, achievements, or leaderboards.

Overall, when designing a serious game for the Free-Spirits type of player, it is important to create an environment that allows them to explore, experiment, and express themselves freely while providing them with feedback and recognition for their achievements.

Achievers

When designing a serious game for achievers type of players, you should consider some of the following tools and mechanisms:

1. Clear goals and objectives: Achievers are motivated by mastering skills and achieving goals. Thus, it’s important to set clear goals and objectives for them to strive for in the game.
2. Sense of Progression: Achievers like to track their progress and see how far they’ve come. Thus, incorporating a progress tracking system in the game, such as experience points or leveling up, can be motivating for them.
3. Challenges and competition: Achievers like to be challenged and compete with others. Incorporating challenges or competitions within the game can keep them engaged and motivated.
4. Feedback and rewards: Achievers like to receive feedback on their performance and be rewarded for their efforts. Thus, providing immediate feedback and rewards for completing goals or achieving milestones can be motivating for them.

Overall, when designing a serious game for achievers type of players, it’s important to create a sense of accomplishment and progress, while also providing challenges and opportunities for competition and personalization.

Summary

I believe a healthy culture should incorporate some, if not many, of these mechanisms. By evaluating these mechanisms from a motivational perspective, you can gain an additional viewpoint to anticipate organizational changes' potential positive or negative impacts. You can also identify changes that could enhance aspects of your organization that are not working well.

As a summary, I would suggest that a mature product-engineering organization should support the following:

1. Learning opportunities and resources: Provide access to online courses, training sessions, and other resources to help team members develop new skills and knowledge related to their work.
2. Progress tracking and feedback: Create clear performance metrics, track progress, and provide regular feedback to help team members understand how they’re doing and where they can improve.
3. Collaborative and creative projects: Encourage team members to collaborate on projects that allow for creative problem-solving and exploration of new ideas.
4. Personal development plans: Work with team members to create personalized development plans that align with their career goals and aspirations.
5. Recognition and rewards: Establish a system for recognizing and rewarding team members for their accomplishments and contributions to the organization.
6. Autonomy: Provide team members with self-governance and control over their work, allowing them to take ownership and responsibility for their projects.
7. Innovation time: Dedicate time for team members to work on innovative projects and explore new technologies or ideas that align with the company’s goals.
8. Mentoring and coaching: Provide opportunities for team members to receive mentoring and coaching from experienced professionals, both within and outside the organization.
9. Celebrate successes: Celebrate team successes and milestones, and create a positive work environment that fosters a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.

Remember: This is a blog post from the series “The PIRATE way”.