Celebrating birthdays, providing a ping-pong table in the recreational room, monetary rewards, a yearly bonus, and keeping the cafeteria stocked with snacks are all fantastic perks and external “nice to haves” when working at an organization, but these extrinsic motivation factors fall short in ensuring employee engagement and satisfaction.
As humans, we crave something more. The desire to contribute, the urge to make a difference, the ability to simply “create”. The day we are born, we are creating relationships with our smiles, we are building skyscrapers with LEGOs, and creating masterpieces with the bowl of spaghetti. We have people in this world that question the social norm, people that instigate innovation to take society to new heights, people that bridge communities around the world to produce change for the betterment of humankind, and many that don’t stop until their last day on Earth. The intrinsic motivation that helps drive these, stems from the desire to create.
If you were forced to take classes in college or university that you did not enjoy, the probability of you doing well in those classes was low. The probability of you remembering what you learned and applying that knowledge to the work you do today is even lower. When we enjoy what we do from within and we are given the ability to flourish in that environment, it enables us to see past the 6 am morning alarms, one-hour commute to work in heavy traffic, and another one-hour commute back from work in heavy traffic every day.
We create a flourishing environment by giving individuals opportunities to grow mentally with new learning possibilities and within their roles as they progress in their careers. We allow them to make mistakes and learn from them. Mistakes are the most valuable experiences one can have; they promote innovation through errors, give us ideas we never thought of, and take us to solutions we only dream of. We allow them to ask questions, because questions allow others to consider what they might have missed, and allow us to clarify our own understanding.
Friction within the organization can stem from politics, inefficient processes, and ambiguity with roles and responsibilities. Based on the maturity of the organization, the level of friction will vary, but identifying those pain points should not be a top-down approach. An idea driven or bottom-up feedback driven organization can effectively recognize these gaps.
You cannot understand the motivational factors for your team if you do not understand people. We cannot motivate individuals to be engaged within the team, or motivate them to be satisfied with their jobs if we are concentrating on extrinsic motivational factors; that short momentum spike won’t last long. The feeling of purpose, sense of contribution, and comfort of safety within a company motivates your team to continue marching ahead optimistically, trending towards a healthy and satisfying environment.