Dan Ariely on “Motivation” — Book review of “Payoff”

Workplace motivation whether individual or team led has been my pet interest having worked across industries and companies, Very big/Big/Small/Very small.

Talent management, employee attrition, employee retention all become pass phrases when one starts focusing on the main one — Motivation.

Dan ariely in his brilliant book talks of many aspects of workplace motivation. From finding meaning in work, to recognition, trust, goodwill, long term view to interactions etc etc.

So, what would the motivation equation look like

Motivation = Money + Achievement + Happiness + Purpose + Sense of progress + Retirement security + Caring for others + Legacy +….

The motivation equation often has elements that appear not to have much to do with joy. Many of our motivations spring from trying to conquer a sense of helplessness and reclaim even a tiny modicum of control over our lives

Reviewing some of the aspects here

• When we are “acknowledged” for our work, we are willing to work harder for less pay, and when we are not acknowledged, we lose much of our motivation. Dan explains this out through multiple studies done comparing rewards for tasks done. A study done at the Intel chip factory in Israel showed that where “acknowledgement” of “Good work” was done, it went a long way in improving productivity in the future compared to other rewards & even cash.

Doug conant, Campbell soup company’s former CEO, handwrote thank you notes to people whose acts of goodwill reached his ears or his inbox. By the time he left the company, he’d written more than 30000 such notes.

• Company structures create an inherent obstacle to employee motivation — One needs to look for places where by not thinking carefully about our incentives, we unintentionally damage motivation & productivity. This especially happens in a scenario, of large companies that maintain an elaborate hierarchy. Every time someone looks for a name, email etc, they are reminded that they are at level X, that they are substitutable with other people at level X, that they are only a small part of a huge organization and that there are many layers above them in the company's hierarchy. Like pseudoparents, companies can be nurturing, quashing, enlightening or limiting.

Cubicles & Cabins & Corner suites — The measure of corporate progression in most companies

• Effort & ownership are strongly related to motivation. It shows that when we work harder and spend a bit more time and effort, we feel a greater sense of ownership and thus enjoy more fruits of our efforts. When we put in the effort & own a product/service/idea, it becomes very important to us. And when this effort is ignored or the project shelved, it adds to the disengagement and de-motivation at the workplace.

All credit to Scott adams

• Connection & engagement — As people feel connected, challenged and engaged; as they feel more trusted and autonomous; and as they get more recognition for their efforts, the total amount of motivation, joy and output for everyone grows much larger. In contrast, today, more than 50% of employees are disengaged, while only 17% are “actively engaged”. Negative motivation is a big deal, because when people are disengaged, they show up late, leave early etc

At Zappos (Now part of amazon), to attract and keep talents, they focused on employees as individuals and did everything to make the people feel connected and happy.

• Differentiating between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators — When choosing whether to undertake a task or not — when we are in the midst of a task, we focus on the inherent joy of that task, but when we thing about the same task in advance, we over focus on the extrinsic motivators, such as payment and bonuses. This is why we are not good predictors of what will motivate us and what will crush our motivation. Example — before going for a walk or a run, we would look at extrinsic motivators like weight loss, calories lost, long term health etc. But once we start the exercise, we are pushed forward by the inherent factors like feeling fit, feeling a high from exercising, a sense of achievement with each step etc.

In a corporate context, creating the right compensation mechanism becomes important — A key question being how do compensation schemes measure the “ Countable” (Number of gadgets sold, revenue etc) as well as the “Uncountable” dimensions (Helping others, improving a process, brilliant ideas etc) of a job and hence compensate rightly.

A sobering finding of the various studies done by Dan and his team —

Its not about the Salary or the bonus — when the salary bonus size becomes very large, performance decreases drastically