Recap: Drivers of Performance

A quick recap of what we’ve covered as part of this session. Remember, we started out talking about drivers of performance. If I relate it back to the Michigan Model of Leadership that we’ve talked about throughout the course, if the goal you have is really to inspire and motivate creativity and innovation, are you going to focus on extrinsic or intrinsic? Our data suggest that the intrinsic might be most important. If you’re really gonna focus on motivating and engaging people in teamwork and a collaboration, a collaborative community. How you figure out what people value and making sure you’re aligning the rewards, whether they be intrinsic or extrinsic, for that collaboration becomes particularly important.

If you’re trying to develop these strategic structures so that your processes are efficient, are you gonna focus on extrinsic or intrinsic, for example? Our data suggest that maybe it’s a mix, where those extrinsic motivating forces are important when quantity, for example, efficiency, speed is important. And so that’s something that you wanna think carefully about. So as you think about the Michigan Model, think about how you would align the values and the rewards across the model so that you’re able to motivate the different behaviors within your team that would enable that team to perform well.

So we started out in this session really focused on the business case for motivation, in particular the values and the needs that people have and being able to align the motivating forces to those values and needs, and the impact that has on engagement. Remember only 13% of people across the globe rate themselves as engaged at work. That leaves 87% of people who are either not engaged or what we called actively disengaged. That’s a very large number of people. If you have a team of ten, on average about eight of those individuals are either not engaged or actively disengaged.

That’s why we’re spending a significant amount of time on understanding drivers of performance, drivers of motivation, and how do you build a motivational system to enhance that engagement of your team members. We also as part of that business case talked about the impact that if you are able to move the needle on that engagement and motivation, what it does for your organization. What it does for your team in terms of profitability, productivity, reductions in attrition, reductions in absenteeism, even gave you data in healthcare in terms of reductions around patient safety incidents. And so the business case is very clear for what we’ve been talking about.

And so I hope that you’re able to internalize the lessons of what’s driving people’s performance and motivation, and being able to think very clearly about how you can leverage those insights to more effectively motivate your team members. And ultimately drive outcomes that your organization cares about. We talked about three classic models of motivation. The first was Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The second was Herzberg’s Hygiene Factors versus Motivators, where the hygiene factors really predict and explain why people might be dissatisfied at work, whereas the motivators really focus on why people are satisfied, engaged, and motivated at work.

And then DC and Ranis model of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation, and how each of those can be important depending on what you’re trying to accomplish in your team. We talked about four of those major motivation traps. Make sure that you’re reviewing those and not falling trap to those. Really encourage you to engage on the discussion forums around the sessions that we have, on the forums around each of these traps. And share your own experiences where you’ve seen these traps take place and what the implication has been.

And what’s some of the lessons you’re taking away from this lecture, as well as your own personal experiences, so that you ensure that yourself, your team members, and your fellow classmates are not falling trap to those same assumptions and those same challenges. And then lastly as I encourage you, and we’ve done this throughout the session with the exercises and assessments. I really encourage you to take a step back from this lesson and make sure that you’re not only listening and internalizing the content of what we’re talking about, but you’re really beginning to use and apply these concepts to improve the motivation of the individuals within your teams.

How can you identify what they care about, what they value, what they need? And how can you create the motivating factors, both extrinsic and intrinsic, that will align with those needs and those values so that people are compelled? They want to contribute. They want to go above and beyond for your team, for your organization. That application to your team, to your organization, is essential for you not only to learn, but to make a difference. You have an opportunity, an opportunity to use these concepts to really make a difference in your team and your organization. Whether it’s a team at work, or outside of work, it doesn’t matter. It’s a real opportunity, and I hope you take advantage of it.