We recognize that year-end performance reviews seldom improve performance as they generally focus on what’s wrong, not amplifying what right.
We also recognize that pretty posters do little to help motivation.
To make it even more confusing research indicates that money by itself is not a great motivator for most knowledge workers!
So what motivates today’s knowledge worker?
According to Dan Pink, more money and a better title are examples of extrinsic motivation that attempts to motivate from the outside. They work well for concrete well defined, repeatable tasks and jobs, but extrinsic motivation fails for the complex tasks performed by knowledge workers.
On the other hand, intrinsic motivation, which is based on autonomy (control), mastery (improving over time), and purpose (makes a difference), is more appropriate way of thinking about motivation for knowledge workers.
In this podcast you will hear Bob Payne interview Sanjiv Augustine; they talk about Dan Pinks work, and cover other aspects of motivation (with an eye on agile) with the goal of leveraging techniques for better performance by individuals, teams and organizations.
Click here to listen to the podcast and then write and tell us what you think.
Thanks,
David Bulkin
