ENGAGEMENT, MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION - Why do your employees work for you?

It’s Not the Money

At the request of The Federal Reserve Bank, MIT was asked to conduct a research project into the degree to which money is the key factor in the engagement, performance and results of people in the work place. It seems a no-brainer of a question. The conventional wisdom is clear. It’s why we pay bonuses.

But the findings of the research, which was repeated in colleges across the US, produced something really surprising. Although money worked as a motivator in simple functions (how fast can you move a stack of bricks) whenever cognitive or collaboration skills we needed money had a detrimental effect on performance.

Thinking, perhaps, that the sums involved were not enough to inspire American college kids, the same incentive exercise was repeated in India where the “bonuses” represented several months’ income – and the results were the same.

The higher the financial incentive, the worse the performance;

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc and see for yourself.

So this begets the question what does what does engage, motivate and inspire people to ever-higher levels of performance? The answer is surprisingly elegant.

So What Is It?

It seems there are three key factors and you only need to examine your own experience to check their validity.

1. Autonomy – I want to have some say in what we do and how we do it. I am not a machine that simply follows instructions. Ask me what I think I should be doing and the best way to go about it and the chances are that I will come up with something as smart or even smarter than you. If I don’t then I’m sure you’ll let me know, but why not give me the opportunity. Any solution or plan that I create is far more likely to be successful than one that is imposed upon me. Let me contribute more than just my labour and see what happens.

2. Purpose – It’s good to know that what I do makes a difference and serves a higher purpose than just doing stuff. I don’t need to save the world, but it’s good to know that what I do is important to the wellbeing of my company, clients and colleagues. It’s good to know that my contribution is appreciated, acknowledged and valued. I will always do more when I know my contribution means something.

3. Improvement – I do not get up in the morning thinking how I can do worse today than I did yesterday. I don’t want to be a worse driver, parent, friend or colleague. Give me the opportunity to get better and I will be grateful. Appreciate that if I do mess up I did not do it on purpose and if it proves to be an opportunity to learn, then so much the better.

This has been tested many, many times. It has been tested by psychologists, sociologists and economists and it has proven to be true time and time again.

Give people autonomy, purpose and the chance to better themselves and you will get the best of them.

The 7^th Bounce, along with Best Year Yet can give you the methodologies, the skills and the tools to create a level of engagement, motivation and inspiration that will get the magical performance and results from your greatest resource – your people.

To find out more contact us for a free diagnostic…….