Hey !

Picture this: the good old days... A sepia-toned young HR Guy. He has more hair than I do now, less grey in his beard and a head full of dreams. He's sitting at his computer, researching "what makes people love their jobs". And in that moment, he stumbles across a TED Talk that would forever shape his destiny.

This was me; circa 2014. The TED Talk - which remains in my top 3 this day - is called The Puzzle of Motivation by Dan Pink. And, faster than Edward Scissorhands in a barber shop, I was off to the book store to buy a copy of Drive.

Pink's Thesis: When trying to motivate employees, managers and companies are often doing the OPPOSITE of what Psychological studies have shown to be effective. They are demotivating people without realising it.

So, if pay rises and firing someone aren't enough to get someone to perform, WTF are we supposed to do?!? Pink (and decades of science) says:

1. Give people AUTONOMY – give people a clear understanding of what success looks like, then get out of their way;
2. Ensure people feel that they are on a path to MASTERY - Progress = Happiness. Your people will be motivated when they feel like they are growing, which creates a very positive cycle of increased performance; and
3. Create a sense of PURPOSE - people will go to extraordinary lengths to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves, sometimes at great personal cost.

There is SO. MUCH. GOLD. in Dan Pink's book. If you're a manager, or just want to get more from yourself, you should read it (or listen to it if you're more of an Audible kinda person).

There are a multitude of applications for Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose across a business. Below are some practical ways that you could apply this to Job Design (which is a fancy way of saying “what you want employees to do and how you want them to do it”).

Autonomy:

1. Instead of outlining the minutiae of every single task or responsibility in job descriptions, instead... DO LESS. Simply complete the statement "If you were absolutely KILLING IT in this job, it would look like..."
2. Manage for outcomes, not inputs: Clarify a desired result and a deadline. Give employees the opportunity to figure out how they achieve it. Set the rules of engagement - what, how, when and why they should come to you for support. (Note: you should only need to do this once or twice, then it will become second nature for both of you)
3. Be flexible - I'll discuss Workplace Flexibility in another post because it's bloody important! It doesn't just mean working from home... and it doesn't need to be complicated. If people have a clear understanding of the outcome, give them the ability to choose when, where and how they do it.

Doing these three things will motivate your team, will help them grow (without having to invest in training), will save you a bunch of time, and you might just learn a new or better way of doing things.

Mastery:

1. Sure, a defined career plan with goals and KPIs would be lovely if you've got the time, but people will also feel they are on a path to mastery if you allow them to "stretch-up" and then give them feedback.
2. Identify people's strengths and double down. A majority of companies spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy trying to improve individual weaknesses, which is a myopic view of talent development. Instead, identify the employee's strengths and then design their job so that they spend most of their time doing that... then ensure there are others in the team who are good at the other stuff. (Hint: this sits at the core of high-performing teams)

Purpose:

1. Be crystal clear on WHY your company exists. If you were to close your doors tomorrow, why would people care? Why would the world be worse if you didn't exist?
2. Make sure that your employee knows, in no uncertain times, exactly why they are essential to you achieving that purpose. For exaple, write in their Job Description or letter of offer: "Acme Industries exists to (insert how and why you're making the world a better place). You (insert employee's name here) do XYZ, which is critical to us achieving that vision. We couldn't do it without you and are very grateful that you're here."
3. Over invest time in finding people who give a shit about YOUR purpose - People who believe what you believe. This is one of the only times that I will tell you to over-invest in an HR function... but it is one of the "20% activities" that will yield the 80% of your results.

I will breakdown how you can apply each of these principles in greater detail in future posts. You can also hit me up at HRforHumans@alionvibes.com if you want to chat about some more detail, templates, examples or help with any of these things for your own business.

Until next week, my little people nerds... "busy" is the enemy: Do less, be effective and use some of that extra time you get to make someone else happy.

Cheers!

Clint

"Today is a good day to have a great day!"

p.s. Apologies for the delay. I am still ironing out some technical issues with my new email platform.