Any parent will tell you that it’s fairly difficult to get a child to do something that they don’t want to do. The same can be said about running product teams. There are plenty of times when you need team members to do things that they otherwise might not choose to do.
Because there’s no intrinsic desire to complete the activity, extrinsic motivations are needed to produce the desired result. These typically take the form of some kind of incentive mechanism. In this article, you’ll learn more about extrinsic motivation, including what specific incentives can be used to motivate team members.
Extrinsic motivation is a form of motivation that is driven by external rewards, as opposed to intrinsic motivation which is driven from within the individual.
Examples of extrinsic motivation include:
An individual’s motivation will vary depending upon the situation. In some cases the goal might resonate with them, but in others their motivation to complete the task will have to come from an external incentive.
In workplaces you regularly encounter attempts at extrinsically motivating individuals. Some of these include salaries, bonuses, overtime payments, pensions, life insurance, employee-of-the-month schemes, and promotions.
All of these examples are intended to motivate individuals to perform a task as well as they can for the benefit of someone else (typically the employer) in exchange for a reward.
Incentive theory suggests that people’s behavior stems from a desire t either to receive a reward or avoid a punishment.
If your boss says, “If the team can work late tonight to fix the bugs in the latest software release then I’ll provide you with beer and pizza,” you might be more likely to continue working in light of the promise of food and drink.
Similarly, if your boss says, “If the team doesn’t work late tonight to fix the bugs in the latest release then I’ll fire one of you,” then you might be more inclined to continue working to ensure your job.
Of course, not all incentives motivate people in the same way.
In the above examples, some team members might be more motivated by going home and having dinner with their family than pizza and beer with work colleagues, and others might decide that working with a manager willing to fire someone for not working beyond their hours is not for them.
This is why it becomes essential to understand the individuals in a team so that incentives can be matched to the motivational needs of the individual. Not all incentives are created equal!
Incentives often operate on the principles of “operant conditioning,” which is where behaviors are either strengthened or weakened over time based on the consequences that the incentives bring.
If I give you $100 every time you stay at work for an extra two hours, then you’re likely to stay at work. If I deduct $100 every time you’re a minute late for work, then you’re likely to get to work on time.
However, it’s important to remember that just because a motivation motivates today doesn’t mean that it’ll motivate tomorrow.
If instead of your boss offering beer and pizza for you to work for an important deadline, they decide to offer beer and pizza every Wednesday evening, the value of the reward, and thus its motivation will decline over time.
Here, your boss has made the mistake of assuming that the motivation was beer and pizza, when in fact it was beer, pizza, and a desire to achieve a specific goal for the team. When they attempt to offer beer and pizza for regular activities, the strength of motivation is reduced, as the specific goal achievement no longer applies.
Incentives influence behavior through a variety of psychological and motivational mechanisms. The following represents the four most common categories of incentives that you can use:
Incentives serve as tangible goals that provide individuals with a clear target to strive for. This focus on an outcome and the prospect of achieving a reward fosters a sense of accomplishment, contributing to personal satisfaction and self-esteem. Examples include Duolingo using a “streaks” feature to encourage users to use the app every day or a team OKR to achieve a checkout conversion rate of x percent.
Incentives create a basis for social comparison, fostering competition among individuals striving for the same rewards. Competitive environments, fueled by incentives, can enhance performance as individuals seek to outperform their peers. Examples include a sales team league table or word trip having promotion or relegation based on the number of words discovered.
Cultural and societal norms often shape the types of incentives that are effective. Societal expectations and values contribute to the perceived significance of certain rewards, influencing behavior in alignment with cultural standards. Examples include disapproval from the product team if time tracking is not completed or the majority of the team agreeing to work late for beer and pizza motivating others to agree.
In the workplace, economic incentives serve as extrinsic motivators that influence work ethic, productivity, and overall job satisfaction. Examples include bonuses, promotions, or salary increases. Outside of the workplace, these might be rewards for completing surveys or watching a certain amount of advertising.
You encounter incentives everywhere you look. Whether it’s at school, work, or within your families, incentives are placed in front of you to influence your behavior.
Whatever it is that you need to do, you need to be motivated one way or another. You’re also likely to find situations where you need to motivate others to do something for you. If they aren’t motivated to do the task on their own then you’ll need to dive into some extrinsic motivations to get them moving.
Featured image source: IconScout
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