Streamline Training & Documentation: Promoting Intrinsic Motivation

Monday, October 01, 2007

Promoting Intrinsic Motivation

Edward Vockell, a professor of educational psychology and research at the School of Education at Purdue University-Calumet, has posted his book, Educational Psychology: A Practical Approach online. The whole book is worth browsing for ideas on how to improve one's training activities, but I'd call particular attention to the treatment of intrinsic motivation, the subject of an earlier post. Prof. Vockell cites seven factors which contribute to intrinsic motivation:¹

Challenge
People are best motivated when working toward personally meaningful goals whose attainment requires functioning at an intermediate level of difficulty — doing tasks that are not too easy, but also not too hard. Which means:

Set personally meaningful goals.

Make attainment of goals probable but not guaranteed.

Provide feedback while the work is underway.

Relate goals to employees' self esteem.

Curiosity
It helps if there is something in the physical environment that attracts the employee's attention, or there is an optimal level of discrepancy between present knowledge and skills and what these can be after the employee takes on a task. Which means:

When teaching, consider making occasional abrupt changes that will be perceived by the senses.

Stimulate interest by making the employee wonder about something.

Control
People generally want to control what happens to them. Which means:

Make clear the cause-and-effect relationships between what employees are doing and what the business requires in order to be successful.

Nurture employees' belief that their work will have a strong impact.

Allow employees to choose how they will learn.

Fantasy
Encourage employees to envision the details of the outcomes they want to achieve. Which means:

Help employees imagine themselves using newly learned information and skills in situations they are likely to confront on the job.

Make the fantasies intrinsic rather than extrinsic.

Look for opportunities to make work fun.

Competition
Without going overboard, enable work groups to compete on meeting goals and objectives. Keep in mind:

Competition is more important for some people than for others.

People who lose at competition may suffer more demotivation than the winners gain in motivation.

Competition can lead to damaging lack of cooperation.

Cooperation
Most people get satisfaction from helping others achieve their goals. Keep in mind:

Cooperation is more important for some people than for others.

Cooperation requires and develops interpersonal skills.

Recognition
Employees feel satisfaction when their accomplishments are recognized and appreciated. Keep in mind:

Recognition requires that the process or product or some other result of the employee's activity be visible.

Recognition differs from competition in that it does not involve a comparison with the performance of someone else.

A final point to bear in mind is that different people, with their different motivational profiles and past experiences, respond differently to the factors listed above. Therefore trainers and managers need to individualize their approach when designing learning, coaching, and work assignments.

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¹ Adapted from Thomas W. Malone and Mark R. Lepper, "Intrinsic Motivation and Instructional Effectiveness in Computer-Based Education, " in Aptitude, Learning, and Instruction: Vol. 3. Cognitive and Affective Process Analyses, R. E. Snow and M. J. Farr (eds.) (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum), pp. 255-286.

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Labels: Learning organization, Learning resources, Motivation, Rewards and recognition

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