Stop Motivating Creativity.

I was delivering a session six weeks ago to a group of senior leaders of a Fortune 500 company. We were talking about emotions at work and the conversation didn’t go anywhere. It seemed, on the surface, like I was speaking to a group that was so disengaged that they had almost left their humanity outside the conference doors, and there was nothing to connect with emotionally.

The group was in the midst of a large-scale transformation — one that would allow them to operate effectively in the digital era. People were open about how they were simply not motivated to address the challenge, and that the majority of employees within the organization were driven primarily by the idea of making more money, or keeping their current money flowing. Transforming the company was just a secondary concern, which meant that the energy of the group was going toward maintaining the status quo, despite the pressing need for change.

This became especially clear when we started talking about the distorted incentive structure in the organization. The company was entirely focused on profits, and all of the incentives were based on short-term results. In this manner — even though people knew what ought to be done — they refrained from doing so in case it affected their immediate outcomes.

Simple carrot-and-stick incentives are antithetical to stimulating the intrinsic motivation that real creativity requires. These kinds of transformations require environments that allow people to step outside of what is known and comfortable, see new perspectives, and think differently. The environment this group was working in was doing none of those things.

The subject of motivation is a complex one — there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What motivates someone to initiate and maintain a long, difficult search for promising new ideas is different from what pushes someone else to pick up the phone and relentlessly cold-call people to sell those ideas.

While research and experience have taught us that external stimuli like bonuses, prestige, and rewards can increase speed, direct focus, and improve efficiency — and therefore, aid in activities like cold-calling — those same rewards and constraints may actually hinder creativity. They impose a pressure to perform, which diminishes the motivation to continue exploring and increases the impulse to avoid failure — and therefore, punishment or the withholding of reward — by taking the safest route.

So, is there anything a company can do to motivate creativity? In an authoritative study carried out across 120 R&D scientists from over 20 countries, 76% of participants indicated that freedom is the strongest contributing factor to creativity, above resources, project management, recognition, and even time. When employees are given autonomy within a clear structure of deliverables, they get the opportunity — and the responsibility — to follow their own interests, curiosities and express their individuality.

However, the advice to ‘just give freedom’ is naturally too simplistic. Organizations that let go of all structure and performance management will tend to find their employees stuck, lost in a sense of unlimited freedom that leaves them confused and unclear about their role in the organizational culture and structure. The key is to be conscious of this dynamic — between structure and freedom — and to constantly be aware of what people need in order to take the next step in the creative process.

Innovation can be long and unrewarding in a way that’s different from more technical tasks, which have moments of accomplishment more clearly built in. If external rewards are the only motivation, the vast majority of people will fail to to push through the inevitable obstacles along the way. Companies seeking to encourage the emergence of the ultimate ‘aha’ moment, should create a clear case for why what their employees are doing is truly important, and then step out of the way and create space and focus. So when inspiration starts talking, employees will have the motivation, as well as the space and silence, to hear it.

I lead the Energy Project Europe and help companies and individuals implement/adjust to new ways of working. Increase in pressure is forcing us to rethink the status quo, and transforming ourselves along with company cultures is imperative for “success” in the future. If you want to get in touch or get an update whenever a new blog post or case study is posted, please e-mail me omri@theenergyproject.nl