• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Disclaimer

The Effectiveness Exchange

'It is much better to do the right thing wronger than the wrong thing right'

  • Home
  • Articles
  • In the news
  • Book reviews
  • Evidence
    • Case studies
    • Other
  • Media
    • Videos
    • Podcasts/audio
  • Theories and methods
    • Systems thinking
    • The Vanguard Method
    • Viable Systems Model (VSM)
    • Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)
    • Systems dynamics
    • Complexity
    • Lean for services
    • Agile
    • Design thinking
You are here: Home / Articles / Motivation intrinsic, engagement free

Motivation intrinsic, engagement free

08/02/2019 By Howard Clark Leave a Comment

For centuries we have been devising new tools to coerce and cajole workers to work harder or work the way we want them to. Douglas McGregor’s work in the 1960s categorised these attempts into two contrasting categories: ‘Theory X’ and ‘Theory Y’. Following the work of FW Taylor and scientific management, Theory X takes a more negative view of humans where they require external ‘prods’ to work (extrinsic motivation). A more positive view of human nature is embodied in Theory Y where managers need to harness their people’s intrinsic motivation. Each theory has led to the creation of management frameworks. Theory X has remained associated with a command and control, top-down style of management. Effective organisations are becoming much closer to theory Y. The evidence is that when services are designed to meet the demands of service users, then motivation and engagement form part of a self-reinforcing cycle. And it’s cheap too!

Command and control has become so prevalent in our working lives that we often no longer recognize them for what they are; management approaches designed upon a particular theory of human behaviour. Targets, bonuses, policies and procedures, one-to-ones, payment-by-results, inspection, call times, and even monitoring staff calls are all a product of the command and control logic. Each one of these tools is designed to push workers to work harder or to regulate their behaviour. As time has progressed scientific studies have shown that the impact of command and control is detrimental to both workers and the performance of organisations. They lead to stress, poor performance, de-motivation, staff turnover and customer dissatisfaction.

Figure 1. McGregor Management assumptions of Theory X and Theory Y (1960)

Many control mechanisms deployed in services organisations were developed for manufacturing and take no account of the dynamic nature of services. Policies and procedures for example have become endemic in many businesses. In service organisations however, value is produced by the involvement of both service users and staff (co-production). This renders the majority of forms of control immediately redundant. Instead of re-assessing theory and method, it has led to new forms of control such as call monitoring. The other side of the control coin is control through incentive. Rewards are given for carrying out certain types action (bonuses, targets). Studies have found that these reduce learning and actually lower overall performance. They mechanize behaviour and end discretion. It goes some way to explaining why bonuses and targets were at the heart of the banking crisis. Incentives lead to unintended consequences. No targets does not mean no measures [post to follow on this].

The 95-5 rule

W. H. Deming understand that the majority of performance is caused by how the system has been designed (95%). Workers only 5%. It is what is called the 95-5 rule. Trying to improve the 5% is to tackle the wrong problem. In fact, tackling the 5% instead of the 95% will increase problems in the system. It is worth watching Deming running his famous red bead experiment to understand the impact that the system has.

Services designed to help people to do a good job

Workers intrinsically want to help people. It is where systems are designed badly, stopping workers from doing the right thing that dysfunction sets in. Designing systems that deliver value, allows workers to engage their innate skills, free from extrinsic control. Intrinsic control is the most efficient and satisfying form of control possible. As workers get better at helping people solve problems (with a sound method to guide them), a self-reinforcing pattern emerges.

Figure 2. Cycle of positive reinforcement

As workers discover that their system has been better designed to help them solve service users’ problems, the more they enjoy the feeling of doing their work. As soon as people know that the system is designed to help them and let them experiment and learn, they will become more innovative and more engaged. As problems are solved, complaints go down. Staff turnover goes down. As complaints go down, the cycle becomes stronger in a positively self-reinforcing way.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Filed Under: Articles, Recent posts Tagged With: Effectiveness, effectiveness exchange, efficiency, efficiency exchange, motivation, targets

About Howard Clark

Howard Clark has 20 years experience of services effectiveness, operations management and consulting in the public, private and HEI sectors. He has spent 12 years consulting as an external and internal consultant including 5 years with Vanguard Consulting.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Connect

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Studying reveals the impact of incentives

20/03/2019

Systems thinking in Lloyds bank

13/03/2019

Systems Thinking in Advice UK

13/03/2019

Systems Thinking in Aviva

13/03/2019

Archives

  • June 2021
  • January 2020
  • October 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019

Book reviews

08/06/2021

Personas have become … [Read More...] about Reflecting upon Personas

29/10/2019

If you are … [Read More...] about Beyond Command and Control by John Seddon

22/02/2019

If you are … [Read More...] about Freedom from Command & Control

Footer

Recent Key Words

Agile Alan Cooper Banking beyond command and control Change demand analysis Digital Digital by Design Effectiveness effectiveness exchange efficiency efficiency exchange fail fast Freedom from command and control higher education Human Resources Insurance isophor John Seddon Labour Party Lean Lean six sigma learning Local Government management module production motivation normative Personas program project management Public Sector ray ison retrospectives Services improvement student experience Student Services systems thinking targets the effectiveness exchange the model for Check the Vanguard Method transformation University variety attenuation

Recent Posts

  • Reflecting upon Personas 08/06/2021
  • Designing and doing in a traditional programme environment 03/01/2020
  • Beyond Command and Control by John Seddon 29/10/2019
  • To understand effectiveness university leaders should study demand 25/04/2019
  • Consulting advice is serious business 05/04/2019

© Copyright 2019 DW World Ltd · All Rights Reserved ·