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September 14, 1998

Motivation Leads To Innovation

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Two other important characteristics of work are task identity and task significance. Work assignments are more motivating when people are given a complete picture of the project and feel as if they are real members of a project team. IT professionals often complain that the only time they hear from project leaders is when the leaders need something. Once they have what they want, the leaders are never heard from again.

Many professionals want jobs that not only let them feel like strong contributors, but jobs that let them build professional reputations with members of their disciplines both inside and outside the company. Studies show that kudos received from colleagues and peer groups motivate professionals more than those from management.

Most professionals display motivational problems at work when the tasks they're assigned appear to have little significance. People don't want to waste their time and effort. They're motivated most when working on projects they believe will be taken seriously-that are considered important and that could significantly affect their organizations, professions, or society in general.

I once worked with a large project team put together to develop a fault-tolerant computer. The project manager wanted to share his enthusiasm for the effort with his new team, so he held a kick-off meeting to explain the project's demands and requirements. But he quickly discovered the team didn't share his excitement and wasn't interested in learning about the technical details. What people really wanted to hear was whether the company was serious about the new business venture. Was the company really going to try to bring a product to market, or would it give up on the project as it had done on other occasions?

Only when a high-level executive in the organization met with the team and explained that he would seriously sponsor the effort did members of the group switch from being passive spectators to motivated contributors.

A fourth task characteristic that's key to getting higher levels of motivation is autonomy-the degree of freedom a person has in carrying out work requirements. As autonomy increases, individuals tend to become more reliant on their own efforts, initiatives, and decisions. They begin to feel more personal responsibility and are willing to accept more personal accountability for the outcomes of their work.

There is, however, an important distinction between strategic autonomy and operational autonomy-between what has to be done in terms of goals, expectations, and direction, and how one chooses to accomplish the goals. Management often confuses these.

Rather than clarifying expectations and establishing clear parameters that would encourage people to make decisions and take initiatives within well-defined boundaries, organizations often give too much free rein with aphorisms such as "Don't be afraid to fail." Then, as they get increasingly nervous, organizations try to control and micromanage the work, imposing all kinds of unanticipated constraints and changes.

People I've met from the former Bell Labs, for example, recount that management would often give research assignments to young technical professionals with mandates such as "Go be creative" or "Go think great thoughts."

The young professional would emerge months later with some great ideas and thoughts only to discover that Bell Labs managers were not interested in that area or did not want to pursue something that would cost a certain amount of money or take a certain length of time.

Managers need to do it the other way around: Clarify expectations and conditions as much as possible; then give people the freedom to function within those constraints.

Visible Results
To sustain motivation, individuals also need to see the results of their work. If professionals cannot determine whether they are performing well or poorly, they have no basis for trying to improve. So another important motivating task characteristic is feedback-the degree to which workers receive clear evaluations of their performance.

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