Why does performance happen, and not nothing?

The question of the drive

The question of motivation is central to every organisation, but it also arises individually in the morning when the alarm goes off. Peter Sloterdijk sums up the state of the debate aptly: “In no matter is modernity as blind as in the question of the driving forces of eminent human beings. In the age of the greatest unleashing of forces there reigns the greatest unwillingness to know about the sources of subjective force.”

It would be too good if there were a switch with which that inner force could be turned on. “How can I motivate my staff?” is a frequent question. It assumes there is something to be done. My claim: there is above all something to be left undone. And a little to be done as well.

Motive and carrot

Motivation is usually understood as a goal-directed tendency to act, traced back to an underlying motive. Motives can be understood as readinesses to act: if a motive is strongly developed, the tendency to show the associated behaviour increases.

So there is a motive inside me that cannot be observed and that drives behaviour out in the world. That inner motive, however, is frequently understood as a carrot dangled from outside — or from above.

The playground

Anyone who wants to know whether people have to be motivated should visit a playground. There, hordes of children do something structurally akin to what staff do in organisations: they work their way along paths built to make sense, up to the heights regarded as achievement, and call out “Look, Dad!” And the answer: “Brilliant!” And on it goes.

It takes no carrot, no incentive, no prompting. What it takes is the name: playground. It outlines a field on which whatever pleases is allowed. Until the children cannot go on. Then there is a break and a snack, and on it goes. Home? Please, no. Time to stop? Absolutely not — at least once more, one last time, one very last time.

All it takes are degrees of freedom and appreciation.

These children eventually come of age. That changes nothing about the mainsprings of their action. To bring the dream employee into the world, managers reach for an obvious but unsuitable means: the carrot. It is a little like promising the child on the playground some chocolate if it climbs the climbing frame. Of course the child will climb. And afterwards stand in front of the bench again, to collect the next task with a reward attached. No initiative, no drive of their own, an addiction to rewards. Reinhard Sprenger described this cycle more than thirty years ago in “Mythos Motivation”.

Fence in the playground

Define an unambiguous space for performance. Performance you cannot appreciate is needed neither by you nor by the people producing it. Freedom needs boundaries. And they must not be known only to the manager.

Build the mother of all climbing frames

Demands may be high, higher indeed than usual performance. But not too high. The desire to climb fades quickly when reaching the first level is impossible. Reaching the summit only with effort makes the whole thing that much more valuable. People react quite differently to demands on their performance.

Be unrestrained in your readiness to praise

The goal should be clear, the way to it chosen freely. You widen the degrees of freedom through trust and resources. Intervene only in the sense of the subsidiarity principle. You do not have to fake your praise when the goal is reached — someone got all the way to the top without your help. And remember the old rule of thumb: a soul can take criticism if it has been praised seven times beforehand.

Literature: Peter Sloterdijk (1995), Weltfremdheit, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp · Brunstein & Heckhausen (2010), Leistungsmotivation, in: Motivation und Handeln, Berlin: Springer · Reinhard K. Sprenger (1991), Mythos Motivation, Frankfurt am Main: Campus.