Motivation 3.0

This morning, I participated in the Learning & Development Roundtabel workshop “Virtual team work in the time of COVID – Turning you and your team right side up again” by Rock.Paper.Scissors Inc. of Lee-Anne Ragan. It was very  informative and energizing, as every encounter with Lee-Anne. If you sign in for the Roundtable (for free), you get access to a tremendous amount of valuable material on learning and online teamwork (go to:  http://ow.ly/ky6T50xZLeU ).

I just pick out one aspect of the rich workshop – the three basic needs that need to be satisfied for people to remain motivated: Mastery, Autonomy, and Purpose (M.A.T.).  Daniel Pink sees these three as the sources of intrinsic motivation. In his book “Drive”(2009), he calls it “Motivation 3.0”, distinguished from “Motivation 1.0” (survival)  and “Motivation 2.0”, the culture of reward and punishment that we still find in most organisations.

• Mastery is the desire to improve, to feel competent.
• Autonomy is the need to direct your own life and work.
• Purpose is the drive to contribute to something larger than yourself.

That made me think about learning more in general, especially at school:  Marks continuously confront you with how far we are still away from competence. There is no autonomy. And there is little explanation why you have to learn what you have to learn. The three basic needs remain largely unmet at school. No wonder that many people leave school with a trauma.

Insight in these three basic needs provide perhaps also some insight into the roots of populism. Many supporters of populist parties feel that they lack 21^st century skills. They feel that they are far away from mastery. They do not experience much autonomy – they see their work and life determined by the elitist few at the top. And they lack purpose and find it in being “against”, which is always easier than being for something.

Much more was discussed at the Roundtable. You find the full content of all Roundtables under “Resources” when you sign up on the above mentioned page. Strongly suggested.