Motivation 3.0

I sometimes forget that the subject of this blog is career crisis and may occasionally drift a bit.  In my last 2 posts,  I touched on how the Costa Rican economy is becoming much more competitive and the issue of employee motivation and retention.  One of the underlying threads here is the importance of what companies do to motivate staff, increase employee satisfaction and, as a result, boost productivity and business results.


Your questioning and doubting your place in your current company may be rooted in you being the object of the wrong kind of motivation.  In light of the recent economy downturn and changes the world is going through, Daniel Pink describes a new theory of motivation 3.0 taking root among renown multinationals.  It  includes 3 key ingredients:  Autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Autonomy:   Employees should be encouraged and challenged to work flexibly, engage in individual projects of their liking and contribute beyond their call of duty or what is written in their job description.  This may imply changes in work schedules, sitting arrangements and involvement in task forces or committees all with the purposes of stimulating participation.


Mastery:  Companies that correctly spot, nurture and nourish their staff strengths motivate them to create bigger and better things.  The phrase "train like crazy" is thrown around very often with training programs, rarely hitting the spot and delivered in a cookie cutter, one size fits all manner.  What best motivator than a company caring about the employees' personal and professional growth?

Purpose:  The company does not exist in a vacuum.  Churning out widgets or generating gross profits alone may not be motivating or purposeful enough in today's work environment.  The community now has plenty of choices and communication weapons to favor companies that serve a higher and common  purpose, be it improving and saving lives, helping the environment or any good cause you can think of.

Never before had companies and their staff been under such pressure and faced with such opportunity to consider the importance of the human capital in business.