This exercise is designed to help you identify how to boost your employees’ intrinsic motivation at work. It is based on the strategies outlined in Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. In the book, Pink suggests that there are three main elements which shape intrinsic motivation: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Use this exercise to evaluate how effectively you currently enable each of these elements in your team, and what you can do to improve your approach.
How to use the exercise
Use the '3 Elements of Motivation Table' below.
Before beginning the exercise, you will find it helpful to read the article 'Daniel Pink's Intrinsic' Motivation', which outlines the theories Pink presents in Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. The article is available to download from reference links below.
The exercise is divided into three sections, which correspond to each of Daniel Pink’s elements of intrinsic motivation.
For each element, note down your current approach in the Examples column. This should be an honest reflection of your activities and actions in creating a culture which supports each aspect of intrinsic motivation.
Next, think about practical ways in which you could improve in each area and note these in the Improvements column. The questions provided in the Help Sheet below may provide some inspiration.
Once you have completed the first two columns for each section, give each element a Priority (High, Medium or Low) in the final column. You should give the highest priority to the area(s) in which you feel you need to make the most improvement.
Pink’s Three Elements of Intrinsic Motivation - Help Sheet
Element 1: Autonomy
Do employees have any input into their responsibilities?
Are employees encouraged to work on their own projects?
Are employees instructed to closely follow set processes?
Do you encourage team members to freely share ideas?
Are teams autonomous or closely linked?
Element 2: Mastery
How competent are team members in their role?
Do some team members struggle to perform certain tasks?
Is this skills gap being addressed?
Do some team members find certain tasks too easy?
Element 3: Purpose
When talking about the organisation, do your employees refer to the organisation as ‘them’ or ‘us’?
Are your employees aware of the goals of the organisation?
What would your employees say is their prime motivator at work?
Do employees feel they play an important role in helping the organisation achieve its goals?
Are employees given a forum to input into the organisation – how the organisation should run, what the organisation should focus on, the organisation’s values etc.?
Diagnostic: Pink’s - Three elements of Intrinsic motivation
Element 1: Autonomy
Think about how much autonomy your employees have. Do they have a large degree of freedom or do they operate within strict parameters?
Examples | Improvements | Priority (H, M or L) |
Examples of your current actions and behaviours | How could you improve them? | |
Element 2: Mastery
This element deals with the capability of employees to complete tasks successfully. How much are they challenged by doing so?
Examples | Improvements | Priority (H,M or L) |
Examples of your current actions and behaviours | How could you improve them? | |
Element 3: Purpose
Do your employees share the organisations sense of purpose? What do you do to encourage employees to share the organisation’s values?
Examples | Improvements | Priority (H,M or L) |
Examples of your current actions and behaviours | How could you improve them? | |
Reference: Intrinsic motivation describes people’s natural drive to perform certain tasks because they enjoy them or are interested in them, and not because of external pressures, such as the promise of reward or fear of punishment.
Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.
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