How Company Culture shapes Employee Motivation?

Key Insights from the HBR article: How Company Culture shapes Employee Motivation

1. Total Motivation of employees (a measure of stronger workplace culture) increases customer satisfaction, revenues and profitability.

2. Play, Purpose and Potential increase Total Motivation of employees.
i. Play: When you are motivated by the work itself. You work because you enjoy it. Play is our learning instinct, and it’s tied to curiosity, experimentation, and exploring challenging problems.
ii. Purpose: When you work because you value the impact you are creating through your work.
iii. Potential: When the work you do enhances your potential.

3. Holding a Weekly Meeting with your team increases Total Motivation of employees when you include the below 3 questions directed at encouraging Play, Purpose and Potential:
a. Play (working for the joy of working): What did I learn this week?
b. Purpose (making a difference): What impact did I have this week?
c. Potential (becoming the greatest version of myself): What do I want to learn next week?

4. Emotional pressure, economic pressure and inertia reduce employee motivation.
i. Emotional pressure: Using fear, peer pressure and shame to get work done, working because of fear of negative impact of not getting the work done. When you do something to avoid disappointing yourself or others, you’re acting on emotional pressure.
​ii. Economic pressure: When an external force makes you work. You work to gain a reward (money) or avoid a punishment.
iii. Inertia: When you ask someone why they are doing their work, and they say, “I don’t know; I’m doing it because I did it yesterday and the day before,” that signals inertia. You are doing all the tasks but you just can’t explain why.

5. A super-performing culture maximises the play, purpose, and potential felt by its people; and minimises the emotional pressure, economic pressure, and inertia. This is known as creating total motivation (ToMo).

6. A century of research has proven what many intuitively know: why you work determines how well you work.

7. Six Questions that help measure the Total Motivation of Employees on a scale between 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree):
i. I continue to work at my current job because I believe the work has an important purpose.
ii. I continue to work at my current job because this type of work will help me reach my personal goals.
iii. There is no good reason why I continue to work at my current job.
iv. I continue to work at my current job because the work itself is fun to do.
v. I continue to work at my current job because without this job I would be worried I couldn't reach my financial objectives.
vi. I continue to work at my current job because if I didn't, I would disappoint myself or people I care about.

8. What processes in an organisation affect culture?
i. Role design
ii. Organisation's Purpose and Core Values
iii. Performance Systems where employees are stack-ranked or rated against each other will increase emotional and economic pressure, reducing total motivation and thus performance

Leadership Depth would make you care about your people and have the courage to make changes in the organisational culture with the intention to contribute to your people than with the intention to make more money. With what intention you lead culture transformation in your organisation will determine how successful you would be in making it happen.

Craft Mastery would bring the joy of learning in your organisation, one of the key contributors in increasing Total Motivation - yours and your people.

Business Excellence through Rockefeller Habits would ensure you implement best-in-class proven processes that would support you to maximise the Total Motivation of your employees.

Keep playing the Great Game of Business using the 3 Growth Levers (Leadership Depth, Craft Mastery, Business Excellence) to joyously lead yourself and your business from good to great, realize your dreams and have it all with ease and grace; while having lots of fun along the way 💜

Love and Light,
j.