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Workplace Motivation is Easy to Understand but Hard to Achieve
When I was young, around 12-years-old, I went to summer camp for a couple of weeks each year. It was an overnight camp with a lake, a lodge, campfires—basically everything. We were separated into cabins of 8 or so campers. Each cabin had an identity based on a classic North American Indian tribe. We were the Shoshone (pronounced: show-show-nee) and although at that time we had no idea who the Shoshone were, we were proud to be one.
The lodge at the camp served as a main gathering place and mess hall for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After each meal, each cabin left two boys behind to clean the table and surrounding area. I remember the clean-up process as being precise and efficient. No chair was left unwiped, no corn kernel was left unfound, and no floor left unswept. Everything was washed, dried and put away spotless! Each table was inspected after every meal and subsequent cleaning. Cleanliness was scored and the crew was released.
At the end of each week, there was a big announcement to the entire camp about who had the cleanest table. By extrapolation, that meant to us that the winner had served the entire camp and all the goodness it stood for—the cleanest, the most untarnished, the best! I don’t remember much difference between the best and the worst tables. What I do remember was the fierce competition to complete the job fast and well, and how much satisfaction the Shoshone got by winning the competition occasionally.
I’ve thought about that experience often over the years. We weren’t competing for anything except recognition by our peers and counselors. Years later and in my current profession, I know that there have been thousands of studies that prove the fact that “people are motivated by recognition more than anything else.” The Ten Ironies of Motivation by Bob Nelson is an excellent article on the subject. He describes the following 10 ironies in a few short paragraphs:
- Most managers think money is the top motivator, but it’s not
- “You get what your reward” is common sense, but not common practice in most organization
- Things that are the most motivating to employees tend to be relatively easy to do and cost the least
- What motivates others is often different from what motivates oneself
- Simple, fun, and creative rewards work best to motivate employees
- Recognizing performance will result in more of that behavior – and that’s also when it means the most to employees
- The greatest impact in using formal awards comes from their symbolic value
- Managers don’t tend to focus on employee motivation until its lost
- It takes less effort to sustain desired behavior and performance than it initially does to create it
- The more you help employees develop marketable skills, the more likely they are to stay with your organization
All of these make sense in the context of my camp experience. They also make sense based on my experience working with organizations and companies aimed at sustaining performance. I have found that the skills of motivating others are rarely taught and not so much valued. The results are valued, but the actual skills and techniques aren’t so well understood.
Perhaps most of all, the issue of performance recognition by both peers and bosses is the one that seems the simplest to understand but the most difficult for organizations to broadly implement (see #6 above). Technically this means measuring and visually displaying workgroup performance as an automatic part of everyone’s job. When this happens, it’s easy for peers, bosses and visitors to recognize a job well done. At the same time, it also allows everyone to recognize and mutually address issues when things aren’t going so well.
When information about performance is buried in the computer, it makes it almost impossible to easily and immediately recognize small steps and short-term gains that are fundamental to long-term improvement and a contributor’s sense of accomplishment.
This doesn’t mean that information shouldn’t be captured in the computer for further analysis, reporting and trend understanding. What it does mean is that fundamental, small-step continuous improvement and employee motivation are so tightly connected that to try to separate them in thinking and in practice is wrong.
Next time you find yourself wondering about how to improve workgroup performance and also how to solve that nagging problem of motivation and employee morale, think about making the performance that you can measure—that is important to the workgroup—visible. This makes recognition and subsequent motivation a lot easier. And one more thing, performance will improve.
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What strategies have you used to successfully motivate your team(s)? Let me know what’s working for you and/or your organization.
4
Aah…how do we motivate people to recognize kernals of corn are scattered around and then act to gather the corn? I like the story from childhood camps and how it applies to the workplace.
I believe that achieving workplace motivation focuses on human behavior. A person’s perception is highly influenced by positive stimuli, and their behavior is a direct result of that stimuli. Soon, certain and positive responses to good behavior are key to achieving workplace motivation. Employee engagement is also key to developing and sustaining a motivated workforce.
I have seen recognition programs (contests, etc.) used to motivate the workplace and this is a form of positive feedback. A more direct approach is to engage leadership regularly in the daily aspects of the operation. To me, this is the definition of feedback that is “soon.” Regular positive recognition by the leadership team will definitely lead to behavior that will motivate the workplace.
Engaging employees and tapping their intellect will motivate the workforce. Techniques such as those used in the lean daily managment system will engage employees and provide good visual examples for both the intact workgroup, but also for the leadership team and all visitors to the work area. Standards become well known to the group and to any who enter the work area and this can also be used to show improvement.
I believe employee engagement and effective leadership through soon, certain and positive feedback is key to achieving workplace motiviation.
Mike – I like your comments above. I would add that in regard to engaging leadership in giving positive feedback on a more consistent basis, equally as important is the need for leadership to ask “why” and “how” questions on a routine basis. So many times there is such a disconnect between leadership / supervisors and the employees that every conversation no matter how well intentioned can be viewed as criticism by the employee.
Until leadership actively engages with their teams on a daily basis (short interval coaching) and begins to build trust by being an aide and a barrier remover, constructive redirects, where necessary, can be hard to come by. Once that cycle is broken though, the teams recognize they are empowered and a more peer conversation is enabled. Leadership is no longer micro-managing but instead letting the teams problem-solve on the front lines and stepping in where more help is needed. That is a powerful motivator for a team and a really rewarding one for everyone to experience.
Amy and Mike – Great comments.Employee motivation is one of my favorite topics. It is no secret that increased employee morale translates into improved productivity and a positive working environment. This is the type of culture that every organization wants to achieve and every employee wants to work in.
Unfortunately, so many employers fail to understand what really motivates their staff members and usually miss the mark by thinking that employees are strictly motivated by money (see #1 in “The Ten Ironies of Motivation” by Bob Nelson). Even worse than a lack of employee engagement is when an employee is mentally “disengaged”. Evidently, being mentally disengaged is also pretty common. In 2006, the Gallup organization published data taken from a survey among workers 18-years-old or older in the United States. It showed 15 percent, or 20.6 million people, were actively disengaged. They estimated that it cost employers $328 billion. This should be reason enough to raise your employees’ level of enthusiasm about their work.
You can’t discuss workforce motivation without discussing leadership. Leadership, not management, plays the biggest role in motivating employees to exceed expectations and deliver consistent results.Traditional managers rarely engage their staff and often just look at the numbers. As a result, they rarely earn more than “status quo” from their workers. In contrast, effective leaders initiate contact with their team members and get to know them, express their appreciation, encourage them, and offer their support. This level of leadership typically leads to “exceeded expectations.” The best way to understand what motivates your employees is to get to know them and truly understand them as human beings.
Early in my work career, I benefited from being around a number of leaders who demonstrated a lot of different leadership styles. I quickly learned the most effective Supervisors were those that took the time to “listen” to their employees rather than just shouting out orders. They left the office and visited the “gemba” (where the work occurs) to understand the work and the issues that were restricting us (the employees) from achieving our goals. The most successful ones encouraged problem-solving to enable success, continually treated us with respect, and provided recognition when and where it was due. As a result, we worked harder and were more successful, often far exceeding expectations.
There are no technological solutions when it comes to motivating your workforce. As mentioned in the previous postings, leadership must create the atmosphere that fosters employee engagement. Utilize the Lean Daily Management System (LDMS®) to align your team’s goals with the organization and measure performance daily. When needed, use the data to problem solve and identify solutions that will allow the team to be successful. In the book, “The 5 levels of Leadership”, author John C. Maxwell asserts that “success demands more than most people are willing to offer, but not more than they are capable of giving. The thing that often makes the difference is good leadership”.
Great topic and comments above. Related to this, a colleague shared with me three key things that drive employee engagement:
1. Understanding what the organization is trying to do and why – a sense of purpose
2. Having responsibility and opportunity to contribute to that purpose – “meaningful work”
3. Opportunity to grow and develop
My experience has shown that this applies to everyone – from the VP to the front line factory or office worker. As has been said above – it is all about leadership (and having the management processes and practices that make it almost impossible to not demonstrate the leadership).