Motivation at work isn’t a Message.... it’s a Design Choice!
I’m always refining how we apply behavioral science to improve employee experiences, especially in organizations going through transformation.
Across every project I’ve worked on, governments, corporates, large change programs people keep talking about engagement, but so few do it well.
Motivation is mentioned in vision slides and leadership briefings, but it rarely shows up in how the work or change itself is structured or planned. Most transformation programs focus on communication and milestones, not on how the system gives or takes away people’s energy, learning, and sense of belonging.
The good news for you is that there is lots of research and practice on what you need to provide to increase or maintain motivation at work. Those decades of research (and a lot of lived experience) point to three conditions that matter most for your organization:
1) Agency: feeling trusted to make decisions and have a say in how things happen. 2) Mastery: feeling capable and seeing tangible progress. 3) Belonging: feeling connected, supported, and valued.
When these conditions are built into the design of work, motivation sustains itself, but when they are missing, disengagement isn’t attitude, it’s more of a signal that the system isn’t working.
In change work, every design decision, from how leaders communicate, how teams learn and how feedback is shared either supports or undermines these three conditions.
You can’t “re-engage” people with messaging if the system has stripped away their agency, progress, or connection.
What drains motivation -Controlling leadership -Excessive workload -Work-life conflict -Recognition theatre
What builds motivation -Real autonomy and trust -Manageable goals and clear progress -Genuine support and flexibility -Honest appreciation and shared learning
A simple test you can use to see where you are at:
1. Did we leave people with real choices? (Agency) 2. Did we make progress visible? (Mastery) 3.
Did we strengthen relationships? (Belonging)
If the answer to any of these is “no,” that’s your focus area... because motivation isn’t a message....it’s the system people work inside of.
Image credit Kamarova et al 2024