Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose
What is it that motivates us to deliver a great performance for our customers, colleagues and our employer? What is it that makes us happy in our work? A simple assumption is that money makes all the difference. But there is a lot of evidence that other factors also play an important role in motivating us to succeed.
In A Nutshell
Learn more about Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose from Dan Pink
In his book, Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink introduces the idea that sources of motivation change as the nature of our work changes. For algorithmic work - repeatedly following an established process to achieve a goal - extrinsic rewards, such as financial remuneration, are important motivators.
For heuristic work - where flexible problem solving and inventiveness are important - intrinsic rewards become more important once a satisfactory level of extrinsic reward is achieved. There is also evidence that contingent rewards, such as productivity bonuses, reduce motivation for those engaged in heuristic work.
We can relate the ideas of algorithmic and heuristic work to the Cynefin framework. Algorithmic work typically lies in the simple or complicated quadrants. Heuristic work will tend to lie in the complex and chaotic quadrants.
Research has shown that the key to high performance in heuristic work is our innate desire for three things - mastery, autonomy and purpose.
Mastery
Is about demonstrating and improving our competency in work, technology, knowledge and all other aspects of our professional role. Even as beginners in an organisation, we can have mastery that is unique in the organisation. This is how mastery can be the seedbed of leadership. Our mastery helps us to form circles of influence in the organisation. As our mastery grows, so to do our circles of influence.
Autonomy
Allowing everyone in the organisation to direct their own working lives and to exercise strong influence over the context in which we work. Autonomy must be founded on trust - trust that those given autonomy will sustain high performance. The call to exercise rigour and discipline must be strongly heard by all those given autonomy.
Purpose
Provides the strong motivation for us to do the work that we are being asked to execute and the outcomes we are asked to create. Purpose links our work to a more global rationale. This rationale may be in terms of value provided to customers or improved performance in the organisation. The goal is larger than the work we are doing and provides us with an understanding of what we are contributing to.
Organisations that can satisfy these three desires are capable of delivering intrinsic rewards.
“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.”
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