In this article, Rafael Oliveira, Agile Leader at Invillia, highlights the importance of the already widespread Moving Motivators tool. The goal is to detail how it can be used both individually and collectively.
We are living in an era of information and purpose, where people seek to work in companies that have values and actions similar to what they pursue in their personal and professional life. In companies that invest in knowledge sharing, in people’s empowerment, in people’s happiness – wherever they are.
So, it is very important for leaders and other team members to know what exactly motivates and demotivates their co-workers and what they can do to create an environment where everyone can thrive.
Themes of study that can help in this journey are Management 3.0 and its Energization front with Intrinsic Motivations and Motivation 3.0.
In this context, the Moving Motivators tool accelerates and streamlines the identification of MOTIVATORS, both individually and collectively, and can thus also be used by Teams / Squads – physically or remotely (for instance, through InStation virtual workplace platform).
The Moving Motivators tool
It consists of 10 cards with different intrinsic motivators, as shown in the image below:
What does each card mean?
Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am.
Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about.
Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities.
Status: My position is good and recognized by the people who work with me.
Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do.
Honor: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work.
Mastery: My work challenges my competence, but it is still within my abilities.
Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment.
Power: There’s enough room for me to influence what happens around me.
Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work.
The Moving Motivators tool in practice – how to play?
Running individually (+/- 1hr duration)
- Start by explaining to the employee the purpose of this dynamic;
- Ask the employee to place the cards in order from left (least important) to right (most important). 10 to 15 minutes is enough for this;
- After organizing the cards, ask the employee to explain the reasons for the choices, giving examples. This is a fundamental step in this dynamic. I suggest also doing some provocations at that moment, to generate more details and reflections, and to take notes of your thoughts on what is more important for future actions.
Running with the team (+/ – 1h30min duration)
- Bring the whole team together and ask each person to organize the most important cards on the left, and the least important ones on the right (considering the team and not the individual);
- Take note of the motivators of each employee, giving scores of 10 to 1 for each choice;
- Make a sum of all the people and, with that, you will have the average result of the team. Then, you will be able to realize what are the main motivators in terms of the team view for future actions;
- Optional: Still on the team, an action that can be done as a provocation for great discussions, is to simulate themes and ask the team to move up the motivators that will be positively triggered and move down the motivators that will be negatively triggered. It is an excellent way to understand reactions to everyday scenarios.
We can have many gains with this game, both for self-knowledge and team-knowledge. It also serves to create harmony and trust within the team, as people start talking more about themselves, opening up more.
Time to run with your teams! Tell us here afterwards what the results were!
References:
- Official link and to download the cards: https://management30.com/practice/moving-motivators/
- K21 article: https://www.knowledge21.com.br/blog/moving-motivators-para-times/
by Rafael Oliveira, Agile Leader, Invillia
Check out our e-Book “Squad Health Check in practice” with everything you need for high performing and motivated teams. And count on our Global Growth Framework – combining Data, People and Action – to go further_
