Guide self-organising teams with Purpose (Part IV of IV)
The desire to do something with meaning
You are about to read the final part of my series about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose and how the concepts can help with creating a self-organising team. In this installation, we will be looking at the importance of Purpose, especially in the context of giving work meaning and instilling engagement and excitement within a team.
The Context
For the full background, please have a read of part one. I will only repeat some core information here to give context for the rest of the article.
Everybody dreams of working in a high-performing team. Contrary to what we think, individual talent or intelligence is in most cases not the deciding factor. It is how well the team can work together.
When a team is set up to be self-organising, a large part of the foundation is put in place for it to run like a well-oiled machine. Which, in turn, yields a higher volume and better quality output.
The concepts of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose provide the structure for a self-organising team, which enables it to be highly productive.
The importance of Purpose
In previous parts of my series, I described tools and processes to foster Autonomy and Mastery, with the goal to create a self-organising team. Both of these concepts are crucial for a team’s performance. They also focus largely on internal aspects of a team — everything that a team can do within the group. Changing our perspective to look at external factors, there are two that stand out: Motivation and Engagement. For me these fall under the concept of Purpose, and I will show how they can amplify the effects of the team’s performance.
In regards to Motivation, businesses have a very simple option: increase the number printed on the pay-check. Paying more must mean employees are happier and working harder. The concept that is at work here is called extrinsic motivation — everything “that comes from outside an individual”.
On the other hand, there is intrinsic motivation which describes “behaviour that is driven by internal rewards”. In traditional management, any form of extrinsic motivation is considered to be much more powerful than intrinsic motivation, which explains why lots of companies put a great focus on roles, pay and bonuses. The mindset is shifting though, shown by the following research:
Volunteering vs. Paid work
As Pink explains in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, across the US volunteering work is growing at a much faster rate compared to paid work. This suggests that people do not need to get paid to be happy and fulfilled at work: “compensated engagement going down, uncompensated engagement going up — suggest that volunteer work is nourishing people in ways that paid work simply is not”.
Helping others
Adam Grant was analysing a university fundraising organisation in regards to Purpose. This was the setup: All employees were split up in three groups. A control who got to go about their work the usual way. A personal benefit group, who went on to read stories about how their work can benefit themselves, for example through the money they will earn. And a group with the focus on higher meaning, which went on to read “stories from the beneficiaries” of their work.
As a result, group three — the one who got to read about how they are helping others — raised more than twice the amount of the control group. Surprisingly, the employees who learned about their personal benefit did bring in the same amount of donations as the control. This displays in a great way how intrinsic motivation can be much more impactful than extrinsic motivation.
Progress in meaningful work
Another great piece of research has recently been released by Teresa Amabile in The Progress Principle. The book looks at the connection between inner-work life and performance and concludes that “it’s forward momentum in meaningful work-progress that creates the best inner work lives”. The aspect that I would like to highlight is the word meaningful. Just being busy at work and getting things done is not enough. It has to be tied to something with a Purpose.
The best way to provide Purpose is by giving your work meaning, which is also the best form of motivation.
Many opportunities are lost in todays organisations by not investing into establishing meaningful work. As leaders of self-organising teams though, it is crucial for the success and quality of our work. The remainder of this article will focus on a couple of topics which can establish a sense of Purpose in your team.
Excite with a Meaningful Vision
Visions can be an extremely powerful tool. We all know Google, who aim to “organise all the world’s information”. This small sentence can have a tremendous impact on the motivation and focus of employees. They feel like their part of something bigger. Something that has meaning. Something that makes the world a better place.
Depending where you sit in the company though, the overall vision might not be within your grasp. That is completely fine, because you can focus on the team’s vision. But what makes a good vision?
- It should — on a very high level — describe what your team wants to achieve and why. In this case, high level means a longer term, almost idealistic target.
- It creates alignment. In the best case, it is the last escalation point for decisions. Say a heated debate has been going on about some product feature, and the team cannot decide whether to go ahead with it or not. If short-term goals will not give any guidance, the vision can and should be the deciding factor.
Very important for a successful vision is that the whole company lives by it — starting with the team and yourself. A vision will never have impact if managers and leaders constantly ignore and do not adhere to it. It sets a bad example for everyone else and it will loose its impact quickly.
Create alignment with Goals on Every Level
Goals play a big role for any team, and especially self-organising teams. As seen in part two of this series about Autonomy, it can be a great opportunity for everybody to influence the direction of the team.
Another great benefit of goals, which I have not mentioned in detail is the ability to increase motivation and engagement. This is particularly important looking at the following statistic: only 13% of employees in the US consider themselves engaged at work. Even more worrying is the fact that about a quarter say they are actively disengaged, in other words they are purposefully trying to hurt the company.
Goals are a great way to prevent this lack of engagement. Especially when goals are aligned throughout the company hierarchy, the results can be quite impressive. Let me illustrate the concept with an example from my team at Redbubble a couple years ago:
It all starts with the goal on the company level. One level down from that, a team wants to set a goal that is aligned with the company — in this case the thinking is that a good amount repeat customers is a great sign for a business that wants to have a long-lasting impact. Looking further, it is even possible to ensure that goals for individuals tie into the hierarchy, as the example of one my personal goals for 2015 shows.
The benefits of using this goal structure are two-fold: First you increase engagement and motivation by setting goals for teams and individuals. And you create a high degree of alignment and meaning because everybody is working towards the same vision.
Summary
We have covered a lot of ground in this series and my hope is that you have taken away some of the tools, processes or guidelines as inspiration for your own team. Hopefully you and your team are even well underway to become self-organising and high-performing.
Below is a list of all the other parts in this series:
The art of self-organising teams: Create amazing teams by applying Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
Build the foundation for self-organising teams with Autonomy: Our desire to be self directed
Aim for perfection in self-organising teams with Mastery: The urge to learn and become better
