Autonomy is a big driver, yet most don’t know if they are enabling it or hindering it.
As Daniel Pink points out, removing autonomy at work - here in the context of mandatory return to office had the opposite effect vs what was expected.
Of course all orgs are different and context may be different for you, however when you are mandated to do something it may hinder autonomy and reduce motivation.
We all know that enabling motivation is challenging, so having a solid grasp of a motivation theory, one theory you could look at is self-determination theory (SDT), is essential for providing a better experiewhich can help you design a better employee experience. ( It’s of course just one piece and you should also include other factors, such as norms, environment, culture, etc..)
SDT highlights three basic needs employees have:
1) Autonomy: Feeling in control of their behaviors and goals - which Daniel has already mentioned.
2) Competence: Gaining mastery of tasks and learning skills.
3) Relatedness: Experiencing a sense of belonging.
Meeting these needs can lead to improved employee well-being, performance, and overall good outcomes.
The question then becomes, does your organisation know how to do a proper assessment and use motivation strategies meet needs?
Lets remember that to enable behavior, we need to understand and address factors hindering or supporting workplace motivation.
Factors that hinder motivation include: -Controlling leadership -Excessive workload -Work-life conflict -Abusive supervision
Factors that promote motivation include: -Job autonomy -Social support -Performance feedback -Skills variety
I hope this post encourages leaders and managers working with teams to think about and design for the needs of their employees.
If your organisation wants to design better employee experience do reach out