23 ms·
To motivate people, talk about the context of the work to be done
- dwoozle 7y agoThis works great when you are developing the polio vaccine. But in the wrong hands this is just an illegitimate tool of power. Plenty of people joined companies like Facebook because they were made to believe that they were truly changing the world for the better... the ability to fool people like that is just corporate demagoguery.
- liotier 7y agoAuftragstaktik - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics
- wjossey 7y agoThis isn’t bad advice, or wrong, just recognize that it’s not universal. Motivations vary from person to person, team to team, company to company. If you want to know how to motivate a person, start by asking them. Maybe they will be self aware enough to identify what it is, maybe not. If they don’t know what motivates them, ask them to take some time over the next week to reflect on a time where they were motivated at their job, and you can discuss it further in your next one on one. Then, take that scenario and start to deconstruct it. What was it about this time that was different than other situations? How long did that motivation last? Who were they working with at that time, and how much did the people play a role in keeping you motivated? How much do factors like stress and salary impact motivation for them? Motivation is also fluid. What motivates someone at 25 is different than at 35. At 25 I craved recognition for having potential. At 35 I crave autonomy. Some fundamental components haven’t changed, but the overall story has. So, when in doubt, and even when not in doubt, start by asking.
- pm215 7y agoPersonally I find being asked to engage in introspection like "reflect on a time when you were motivated at your job" pretty demotivating. I'm terrible at it, and it's a huge timesink with negative associations to things like interviews and having to write up annual performance review text.
- t34543 7y agoSounds circular. Maybe you need to be motivated to think about what drives you. Catch 22.
- wjossey 7y agoAll the more to my point. You’d have a pretty crisp answer if I asked you in a 1:1, what motivates you. No need for the introspection. But, you can’t expect your manager or anyone to know that about you unless you’re willing to share it. A good manager will understand this is demotivating and work within those boundaries. But, unfortunately managers aren’t clairvoyant, so we do need to hear it from you :)
- pm215 7y agoYeah, no, I wouldn't. I might at best have a vague idea of what might be motivating. Like I said, I don't do introspection -- I could tell you if I'm happy or not happy at work, but if the answer's not happy that doesn't mean I know why.
- szatkus 7y agoFor me, talking with my client over Slack or Skype about the task works. Suddenly some uninteresting thing defined only by a JIRA issue becomes something more. Some feature which provides real business value with context. That's one of the reasons why I work where I work, because PMs don't stand between us and the clients.
- SiempreViernes 7y agoI feel like the question in the title leaves out important context. Like, why do you need to motivate people at all? Presumably it's because they aren't happy to do the work you ask of them, and the reasons for this can vary wildly, from the divorcee suffering a depression to the QA temp that knows you think of them about as fondly as of the stack of papers that stabilises that one wobbly table you don't like anyway...
- jimktrains2 7y agoWhy should anyone be happy to do what you ask if they get nothing out of it?
- hinkley 7y agoTreating people like individuals instead of cogs? That's some dangerously democratic-sounding idealism there pal. Get back to your oxcart, peasant!
- jariel 7y agoEven though it's fair to say that overall motivation is different for different folks - the advice given is universal. Having knowledge of the bigger picture usually enables one to do their job a little better, and is motivating at the professional level, if not a personal level. The subtle issues are first - empowerment, which enables people to do their jobs, which is always motivating, and second - understanding the difference between professional and personal motivation. Almost everyone has an innate sense of pride in their work and skills. When they are able to do a better job, they feel better. When they have knowledge of 'the bigger picture' it can really help orient them in the landscape and inform their decisions. 'Motivation' is a tricky word in this context: most work is work, it's not motivating in the natural sense, but I do think we all have a sense of professional obligation, and want to fulfil that obligation. People who don't have a reasonable motivation to do whatever it is they are doing ... should be doing something else. Giving the broader context of any material objective will definitely help whether someone is 18 or 60, whether they are in ops, finance, or R&D.
- dbs 7y agoWhat do people crave at 45, 55, 65?
- mdorazio 7y agoCynical take: this is all great until it becomes clear to people that the context is actually "one of the executives wants a promotion". Or increasingly common: "profits matter more than any of our purported 'values'". It gets hard to motivate people when they know they're working on things that are detrimental to the public in some way, or that only exist to make other people look good. Trying to fluff the context in these cases tends to just make people even less motivated because they're not stupid.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoI agree. Best way to motivate people is to demonstrate that leadership and everybody else are in the same boat, share the downside and also the upside. But in general I think mission driven leadership is good as long as the top doesn’t have a habit of constantly overriding lower level decisions.
- bsanr2 7y agoThis. Work is just like any other endeavor: the questions, "What are we doing?" and, "Why are we doing this?" need to be answered. The first informs the second in that people are generally willing to do truly meaningful work for no compensation, with a decline in the "meaning" necessitating an increase in compensation. If you can't articulate meaning satisfactorily, be prepared to increase compensation. If you can do neither, be prepared for high turnover. People don't want to waste their time.
- silveroriole 7y agoAlso when it’s clear that the context is “make money for someone who isn’t you.” Every time I see what the work I’m doing is costing the client, or the expected profits it will generate, I get depressed. I’m making a change that brings the company an extra million dollars, great - but I’m still on the same salary...
- mitchdoogle 7y agoI'm in the same boat (but not quite as much money). I'm preparing to ask for a raise by demonstrating how my specific knowledge helps the company perform more efficiently, and how it is less costly to give me a raise than it would be to replace me.
- udkl 7y agoThis doesn't paint the entire picture. One way to motivate people is to make sure they understand the 'why' behind the work. A step in making them understand the 'why' is talking about the broader context (which the article is about).
- jarnix 7y agoThis reminds me of the people who are/were working on building weapons, they are/were not aware of the context of their work, for example they were building small pieces of large weapons but not knowing the full plan.
- Invictus0 7y agoI interned for a major defense contractor on a top secret contract. I did not have a security clearance, nor did several of my coworkers, and we had no idea what it was we were doing, at all. My job consisted of "Do this task" with absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. I hated that job passionately and definitely agree with the author that contextualizing your work matters.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- waitwhatwhoa 7y agoIf you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. --Antoine de Saint Exupery
- jascii 7y agoI have always found that as an employee, I can play an active role in this. Ask questions, do research, find out how your work relates to the bigger picture. This (and yes, sometimes combined with some mild self-deception) can go a long way towards staying motivated. It does sometimes bring up the question whether I shouldn't be asking those questions for myself and work for myself though ;)
- pjmorris 7y ago“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
- immawizard 7y agoShip building is a specialized trade, with tradesman located in a town near the dockyard. I doubt that shipbuilders are motivated by the love of the sea. The quote does not work in high-specialization industrial society where the product is constructed for a customer, with sales department claiming credit for the sale, and the owner pocketing the surplus value. Much better motivation is love for a process, in ship building example, ship engineering with management supporting career development.
- pc86 7y agoCall me crazy but I think it's possible you've missed the point.
- hinkley 7y agoIt's becoming a huge peeve of mine when people seem to have forgotten what thread they're in and take a statement out of all reasonable context or nitpick about things that do not materially degrade the point (quotes are a little fussy that way, who knows how people will interpret them). On reddit they'd just invoke /r/lostredditor My latest strategy is to hit back with humor. I don't know if it's working, but early results are positive.
- Rainymood 7y ago>It's becoming a huge peeve of mine when people seem to have forgotten what thread they're in and take a statement out of all reasonable context or nitpick about things that do not materially degrade the point (quotes are a little fussy that way, who knows how people will interpret them). Welcome to HN
- nathan_compton 7y agoThe subtext of every article like this is "How to motivate people (without paying them more or giving them equity)." In many, perhaps most, situations, people are working to build things they don't own. That is the context. Any other spin on the context is just manipulation. This stuff might work on some people, but, as a regular employee, I'm most motivated by frankness from my bosses. Nothing turns me off faster than platitudes about the purpose of our work or why I should be motivated by it.
- nicoburns 7y agoI'm pretty motivated by context / explanantion of purpose. If I'm just given platitudes, that doesn't count. I want to know why we're really doing this (so agree on frankness), and if I don't like the answer, I probably won't be sticking around for long. To a point, this is more important to me than pay or equity.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoSo, the boss is only a 100x-millionaire and really wants to own his own island before he's 30. Let's knuckle down and do it! Realism, surely isn't motivating in a capitalist society, you're working to make someone else richer in most jobs, someone else who is already rich.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mitchdoogle 7y agoIsn't this article promoting exactly what you say, "frankness from your bosses"? "Meaningful context is built through hot messages: high-resolution information where nothing is left unsaid, the meaning is clear and the guesswork is reduced to a minimum."
- jariel 7y ago" people are working to build things they don't own. That is the context. Any other spin on the context is just manipulation." This is overly cynical. People are getting paid a salary to do something - that salary is usually paid wether or not the work actually gets done, whether the thing actually works, wether the thing actually makes money. Money in the bank is worth 10x some magical payout at a future date. New projects of any kind are exceedingly risky, and that's the ugliness that comes with ownership, it's also why the vast, vast majority of people wouldn't trade their salaries for big chunks of equity. Most people are professionals at heart, take pride in what they do, and want to do a good job. It helps them to know what they are working on and it gives meaning to the work. It's universally good advice in any king of org.
- nlawalker 7y agoIn my experience, one reason this doesn't happen is because it's a lot easier for middle managers to carve out tasks and assign them then it is to corral and coordinate a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to help. It's easier for them to take credit for the work done in the end as well.
- iamwahwah 7y agoLeaders inspire, managers motivate.
- Rainymood 7y agoI would argue: leaders lead and managers manage.
- phumbe 7y agoI've encountered this being used as a crutch for poor employee performance on a software project focused on replacing a legacy application. An employee with little programming experience used his supposed lack of context as an excuse for poor work and disinterest despite having been given an overview of (1) what the legacy software does and why, (2) the broader project goals, and (3) the immediate project goal (i.e., replacing the existing software). The employee similarly hid behind their lack of technical understanding, asking questions to "learn" but ignoring the answers.
- erokar 7y agoSometimes the product/context isn't very meaningful. Sometimes the company's end goal is negative. E.g: Facebook. Their employees are probably more motivated if they suppress the fact that the context/goal is to suck as much information as possible from their users to target ads at them.
- poulsbohemian 7y agoWhen I think about people I've managed or observed, along with the way that clients or managers have treated me, I see a fallacy where differing expectations or needs are substituted for motivation. For example, I recently walked away from a project where the client kept restating the priority and the work context, both of which were well understood. The problem was that the project needed a legit budget and team - it wasn't a question of motivation, but reality on the ground. Likewise when I think about people I've managed who on the surface seemed unmotivated, the real problems were more subtle - one guy was clearly depressed but also didn't have the skills for the job. Another was going through a bad divorce and really needed a lot more money for the legal war chest. Still another was tired of so much work travel and really wanted to be in a different career. I'm sure there are people who legitimately lack intrinsic motivation, but more often than not my experience has been is doesn't have anything to do with not understanding the context of the work (though I'm sure that was itself be demoralizing).
- tombert 7y agoMaybe I'm an outlier (being a wannabe intellectual), but I feel like for me I honestly don't care too much about the grander scope of stuff as much as the actual individual problems I want to solve. I like solving problems with concurrency and networking stuff, and typically don't pay much attention to how it affects the rest of the organization. I have some ethical issues with marketing, and worked on the adtech team of a company for two years for this reason. I suspect this drives virtually any employer who I work with crazy, since they typically try and motivate me by telling me all of the cool stuff my work is going to do.
- ngrilly 7y agoReminds me of the military concept of "commander's intent". By knowing the broader purpose of a mission, subordinates are able to take initiatives if and when necessary.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoSurely you have the same problems in war as in capitalism: that if the commander's intent is to have you all die in order to make an overall gain elsewhere then it may well not help to know their intent.
- malvosenior 7y agoBest way to motivate people? Trust them. Trust is extremely rare in the modern work place. From grueling interview loops designed to weed out "fakers" to open offices, to micro managers, to always on Slackers... A little bit of trust goes a long way. Find good people and don't treat them like they're out to rip you off and their motivation will flow.
- kissgyorgy 7y agoI really need this article! I tried to start a startup with friends multiple times already, but the end result always was they cancelled. I think I overwhelmed them listing all the things needed to do in order to succeed.
- Jorge1o1 7y agoLooks like they’re mostly talking about Task Identity from Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_characteristic_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_characteristic_theory
- dboreham 7y agoThis is spot on. Unfortunately in my (long) experience often the aspiring motivators do not understand the context, leaving it to the underlings to attempt to reverse engineer it.
- meddlin 7y agoMore fundamental than context, stop telling me your sole purpose is to make money. That's a one-way ticket to turning me off of any attempt to ever increasing my engagement as an employee. Your business exists to solve a problem, which then makes money. Otherwise, I expect your business to be in finance or the government's treasury--then your #1 is "to make money".
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoIt's oft repeated on HN that companies have a duty to make money for their shareholders as that's why they exist, to make money. Not true of all companies, but certainly true of many AFAICT.
- markjspivey 7y agowe can’t conflate nor confuse the interrogatives (who for what for when for where for why for how) ... things being talked about are merely distinct, and certainly not interchangeable either / ors .
- mntmoss 7y agoIn my opinion, every great work needs its justifying myth. If you don't have that, you won't have the confidence to pursue it further. That doesn't mean that the myth is necessarily a good, ethical or healthy one. A lot of myths are of the form of "worthy sacrifice." Others are of the "defending oneself" sort, or the "ascent to greatness". The myth is made to fit the times and the task. Organizations, and teams in those organizations, often take on their myths without consciously thinking about it. But it's absolutely critical to have them there to set the tone and allow everyone to proceed on the same page.
- Jordanpomeroy 7y agoI find ownership to be motivating. Good leaders inspire me to own results, but also empower me to own the “how”. When I do not own the method of obtaining success, I do not feel like I truly am responsible for success. The truth is, with more complex work, good leaders realize they’re at the mercy of those that do the work, because of the complexity only the people actually doing the work have complete understanding of the system. Therefore, the best card to play is to be very clear about the desired outcome, including the whole strategy and context behind it, and hope the team owns it all.
- paulriddle 7y agoIt's funny how carefully you're stepping around financially rewarding people who do the work. It's like you know your status does not allow you to own the money generated, so you're settling for owning the results, the process, the method, the responsibility, the all. You are weak.
- ken 7y agoBoeing tried this a lot back when I worked there. Our managers would talk about how their airplanes enabled people to trade with people across the globe, and brought people together. It's hard to see the high-level talk as anything but just talk when the systems you have to deal with on a daily basis are a tire fire. Initech tried to talk a good game, too. I suppose some people are motivated that way, but I care most about my daily process. If the process makes me miserable, no amount of "context" will motivate me.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoI guess the question is "if we make zero profit, and have to reduce management level wages to achieve greater fuel efficiency in [our part of] global trade, then we're going to do that then, right?". The answer is going to be "well of course the shareholders deserve profits", or something similar?
- andrewflnr 7y agoIt's funny, and sad, to see this on the front page at the same time as the story about Google cancelling TGIF.
- esotericn 7y agoIt's funny. I've never really gotten on with working at large companies. Fundamentally I think this is why. Most large companies do not have a context for work done. If they do, risk and reward is detached from it entirely. The rest of the company forms a huge buffer such that you can do really well, or really badly, and it normally won't matter that much. If there are levels of management that are "too important" for me to speak to, I'm out.
- perl4ever 7y agoI've had two jobs for more or less public sector entities, and they were conspicuously more interested in new employees understanding the complete organization and its purpose.