MOVING MOTIVATORS: “The power of personal motivation”
This year 2020 has presented us with a particular situation in all areas, both personally and professionally. I would like to tell you a little about one of the requirements made by a financial company that hired me as a consultant in agile methodologies, specifically in the Scrum framework. The request of this company was focused on this question: How to keep the work teams motivated? In this case, it referred to the work teams that were in charge of the developments in technology, with the premise: “They have always worked in a face-to-face way, now they must work remotely (Home Office)”. This multidisciplinary team was composed of 7 members.
The novelty of making home office, without the need to move, caused 40% of the companies to state six months ago that this model had positively impacted on productivity; but now, only 18% of the businesses maintain it.
This is revealed by the survey “Covid-19: impact on business and profits”, elaborated by Willis Towers Watson (Mexico).
When I learned about Management 3.0, I decided to use the tool “Moving Motivator”, which was developed by Jurgen Appelo and is based on 10 intrinsic motivations that he called: CHAMPFROGS (See official site: https://management30.com/practice/moving-motivators/ ).
This is the game “Moving Motivators”, created by Jurgen Appelo, who took as a reference the studies carried out by Richard Ryan and Edward Deci (Handbook of Self-Determination Research) and Steven Reiss (Who am I?: 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions Define Our Personalities). In which they deal with the types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that a person can possess.
It is convenient before continuing reading, to know the difference between these types of motivation. When speaking of intrinsic motivation, it refers to the innate desires of people to do good, to have self direction and self control in achieving their goals. Meanwhile, extrinsic motivation refers to external rewards such as bonuses, payments, promotions, recognition and rewards.
This game Moving Motivator contains 10 types of motivations: CHAMPFROGS (its acronym in English), means: Curiosity, Honor, Acceptance, Mastery, Power, Freedom, Relationship, Order, Goal and Status. These are extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. To begin this activity we must ask ourselves: What is important to me? What moves me daily? What makes me move faster? Being leaders, we know that we cannot make the team feel motivated by a project or with the commitment to work at a distance with the team; but we can be aware by being attentive to the team and knowing which conditions must occur (motivators) to increase the possibility of it happening.
To do this, we must learn to play Moving Motivators, which is a dynamic I learned during the Management 3.0 training. It is part of the Energize People Module: Motivation and Engagement.
I used this tool to work from a distance, but you can still work in a classroom setting. The purpose is to develop in the team the necessary motivation to maintain productivity by working remotely.
Here I explain the steps you must take to play “Moving Motivators” at a distance:
1.Download the Moving Motivators cards at https://management30.com/shop/moving-motivators-cards/ (they are available in several languages and completely free).
2. You can use any application that allows you to work live in a collaborative way on the net. In my case I used www.miro.com where I created a shared framework for the 7 participants.
3. In that frame created, add a horizontal line for each team member, plus the 10 motivators (CHAMPFROGS) in each line, as you can see in the image. Likewise add an additional line with their respective motivators for the team.
4.When the Moving Motivators framework is ready, the invitation is sent to each member to enter www.miro.com.
5. A link is created for video conferencing through one of the Apps that is possible or comfortable for them to work with (Zoom, Meet, Skype, etc).
6. When connecting to the video call link, make sure that they have also entered the invitation from www.miro.com.
7. The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is explained to the team, as well as the Moving Motivator with its CHAMPFROGS and the meaning of each motivator (you will find it after reading these steps).
8. Each team member, select one of the lines that contains the motivators for personal use.
9. One of the lines is left for the team, that is, at the end of each one of their Moving Motivators by consensus, they define which will be the ones corresponding to the team.
10. The facilitator of the tool describes each motivator and the importance that this activity represents for the person himself and for the team.
11. In a first activity, the members are asked to place in an orderly way, from left (less relevant) to right (more relevant), the line of the Moving Motivators chosen, in this case, in relation to the current project they are working on. (This dynamic can be done when starting a new project, changing projects, and / or when the team members do not know each other. For example: Taking as a reference the request made by the company of the How to keep motivated the work teams? I started the activity by asking the following questions: Which of these motivators (CHAMPFROGS), make you feel to be sharing with the team? Which order would you put them, according to the importance you give to the horizontal line? And when you place them in the order you decide, do you keep the Moving Motivators on that horizontal line or do you raise it if it is more positive, or lower it if it is less positive? This is one way to make decision making easier. At this stage, you can see the difference between the participants, which allows for a greater connection and understanding of the team.
12. In the second activity of this dynamic, when all the members of the team finish their personal Moving Motivators, you talk with them about the decision making they had and how you can collaborate for the integration of the team. Then, it is requested to start defining the distribution of the motivators in the line of the Moving Motivators of the team, this action facilitates the alignment of the team’s vision, increases the commitment and increases the sense of belonging. Questions that facilitate this phase: What can we do to support ourselves as a team? What generates stress during the development of the project?
The Moving Motivators cards in The 10 CHAMPFROGS motivators are:
Curiosity: I have many things to investigate and think about.
Honor: I am proud that my personal values are reflected in the way I work.
Acceptance: People around me approve of what I do and who I am.
Mastery: My work challenges my competence, but is still within my capabilities.
Power: There is enough room for me to influence what happens around me.
Freedom: I am independent from others with my work and responsibilities.
Relationship: I have good social contacts with the people at my job.
Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment.
Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work I do.
Status: My position is good, and recognized by the people who work with me.
Recommendations for greater effectiveness with the Moving Motivators:
Prepare the participants regarding the purpose of the activity, its rules and the meaning of each Moving Motivator card, as well as expressing the importance of the active participation of each team member, always focusing on the motivators.
Practice listening with commitment (not judging or criticizing the decision of the chosen motivators); invite assertive and effective communication, so that the person can fully express him/herself. At the end of the first activity, invite to express the reasons why they chose the order of importance they placed. In this phase all the members of the team get to know and understand each other.
In conclusion
As facilitator of the Moving Motivator of Management 3.0 I learned the capacity that the person can have in improving his performance if he has the motivators that make sense to his life. It is important to highlight that not all people are motivated by money or salary, in some cases they are more interested in public recognition.
The team learned that diversity of motivators is the key to progress and that by getting to know their peers, they work with greater empathy.
My next experiment with this practice will be to invite team members to move their personal motivators out of their comfort zone.
In the next facilitation of this tool, I would ask the team members to explain each Moving Motivator. This way I can verify if they handle the concepts correctly and if they can lead to practical examples (Note: Taking into consideration that it is a team that already knows the tool).
The result of the team is greater integration, they also commented that now they are taken into account.
The dynamism we are experiencing today in adapting strategies to work with teams in the new normality, requires the cooperation of all levels of the organization. That is why tools such as the Moving Motivators of Management 3.0 are necessary, since they focus on the individual and the continuous search for excellence. So I give you an advice: develop the new professional skills needed in this time and that in Management 3.0 you can get several of them.
I invite you to experience this tool with some of your work teams. You will be able to observe the difference that will be generated between the team that performs the dynamic versus the teams that have not performed it. (You can use a pros & cons list).
I would like to know your opinion about this article. To know if you learned something different from what you already know and, if you want to continue knowing topics of this line of Management 3.0
