What Motivates You can Make You Happy

Thanks to our Sponsors! Partners Premier Marquee: Prize:

What does that mean?

Dan Pink - Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1SDV8nxypE

Experiments Harry Harlow Edward Deci

External Motivation

Sticks and Carrots

History Think of the Industrial Revolution Turn of the 20th Century Fredrick Winslow Taylor Developed Scientific Management Reward desired behavior Punish unwanted behavior Flourished throughout Industry

Benefits Easy to define Linear Relationship To get more of what you want, add incentive

Where Carrots Fail Scientific Studies With cognitive tasks, incentives diminish performance

Sticks

Carrots and Sticks They can extinguish intrinsic motivation They can diminish performance They can crush creativity They can crowd out good behavior They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior They can become addictive They can foster short term thinking

Intrinsic Motivation

Self-determination theory Many theories of behavior pivot around a particular tendency. We’re keen responders to positive and negative reinforcements… SDT argues that we have three innate psycological needs – compentence, autonomy, and relatedness. When these needs are satisfied, we’re motivated, productive, and happy. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan at the University of Roch

Autonomy

Autonomous motivations involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice… Whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure and demand toward specific outcomes that come from forces perceived to be external to the self. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan

Assumption We are all responsible people who are capable of accomplishing the tasks at hand.

Assumption We want to do our job.

Autonomy in Software Engineering Time Daily hours Extra hours What it takes to accomplish tasks Technique How to accomplish task Order of tasks When a task is complete

mastery

Mindset Carol Dweck Study Entity Theory Incremental Theory Half students a performance goal Get an A in French Half students a learning goal Learn to speak French “effective for straightforward problems” “inhibited ability to apply concepts to new situations

Flow Csikszentmihalyi study Flow is not a nicety, it is a necesity Participants removed from their lives anything that they did because they enjoyed them “play” or “noninstrumental” 48 hours and participant’s mood deteriorated such that they had to cancel the study Flow is not a nicety, it is a necesity

purpose

Purpose Purpose provides activation energy for living. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Purpose The goals of management are usually described in words like efficiency, advantage, value, superiority, focus, and differentiation. Important as these objectives are, they lack the power to rouse human hearts. Business leaders must find ways to infuse mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals. Gary Hamel

The Good Life Edward Deci, Richard Ryan, Christopher Niemiec study Asked students about life goals Followed up in two years Extrinsic aspirations Wealth and fame Increased anxiety and depression Intrinsic aspirations Help others improve lives, to learn, etc. Low levels of anxiety and depression

Intrinsic motivation in software engineering

Agile Manifesto Individuals and Interactions Working Software over processes and tools Working Software over comprehensive documentation Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to Change over following a plan

Principles Behind Agile Manifesto Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

Principles Behind Agile Manifesto The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

Flow When what one must do exceeds capabilities, anxiety results When what one must do falls short of capabilities, boredom results When the match is just right – we call this flow

Persuading your Boss Ask the right question “Can I turn around this whole organization” or “Is there one thing I can do tomorrow in my own domain to make things a little better”

Persuading your Boss Be strategically subversive Take a subversive step If it fails, keep quite If it succeeds, tell others Others are probably frustrated with the status quo too

Persuading your Boss Emphasize Results Tell your boss the positive Increase sales Streamline processes Offer up suggestions to achieve these results

Persuading your Boss Boss is human (sometimes) May also be craving Autonomy Mastery Purpose

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. The gap is wide.