Where’s Motivation Coming From? For You And Your Colleagues

Transcript

Where’s Motivation Coming From? For You And Your Colleagues 

[00:00:00] Alexander: Welcome to another episode of the Effective Statistician. And maybe this sounds a little bit different than usual. [00:00:10] That’s because I’m using a new microphone. And I’m recording this basically on the road, so this may also give a little [00:00:20] bit of a different sound. A couple of things I want to talk about are the sources for motivation.[00:00:30] 

[00:00:30] Alexander: And this is a really important topic because it is important for you to basically do the things that you love and that [00:00:40] motivates you. And to understand where this motivation is coming from. And maybe also if you do certain things and you are not [00:00:50] motivated about them. Why are you not motivated? Where is the problem?

[00:00:58] Alexander: And, of course, it is [00:01:00] really important if you work with other people. And we all do. This is not just for supervisors. For them, of course, it is super important to [00:01:10] know what motivates your team, the people that report to you. It is also important when you work [00:01:20] with a cross functional team or when you work in a client vendor relationship.

[00:01:27] Alexander: It’s always better to work with [00:01:30] motivated people. It is. It usually leads to less problems people really want to succeed, so [00:01:40] they are more invested, they get more creative to find solutions, all these kind of different things. And overall, it’s just more [00:01:50] fun, yeah? What do you want to do all day?

[00:01:53] Alexander: Something that is motivating or something that is not? The answer is pretty clear. So [00:02:00] And there’s one thing that is really striking and that is money is usually [00:02:10] not a great motivator. So money has a, has a very, very interesting thing. It is a problem if [00:02:20] there is not enough money. Some people in HR call it, it’s a, it’s a hygiene topic.

[00:02:27] Alexander: Yeah. Yeah. You need to [00:02:30] take it off the table, because if it’s on the table, it kind of blocks everything else. But once it’s off the table, you don’t get [00:02:40] motivated by it. There’s actually research that if you work on complex tasks, and well, we all do a complex task [00:02:50] all day, and we are mostly paid for these complex tasks and not for the standard tasks, When you work on these complex tasks, [00:03:00] more money is actually harmful.

[00:03:04] Alexander: It leads to worse outcomes. And now you might think like, well, that [00:03:10] sounds like a really left wing, communist, socialist kind of idea, that more money is harmful. Well, it is about the [00:03:20] incentives. And the research from that is from a, I would say, probably one of the least communist [00:03:30] socialist organizations in the world, the FED, the Federal Bank of the US.

[00:03:39] Alexander: I [00:03:40] think we can assume that they are likely not communists or socialists. So they found out that money. If it is, [00:03:50] you know, the, the, the big incentivizer, then that leads to worse creativity and yeah, just worse [00:04:00] outcomes overall. So when it’s not money, and money is off the table, so everybody is paid well, and they can pay their bills, and [00:04:10] all these kind of different things, what is it then?

[00:04:14] Alexander: Now, there are three areas, and I will link to a [00:04:20] really, really nice video that summarizes all of that. It’s a cartoon from RSA about a book called Drive by Dan [00:04:30] Pink. Great video. If you love these kind of things, then have a look. It is where someone [00:04:40] Creates a cartoon and speaks to it. So, pretty, pretty nice.

[00:04:45] Alexander: So, the three things that are really important to drive your [00:04:50] motivation are first, purpose. Purpose means that you see why this is [00:05:00] important for a bigger reason. Maybe in our area it is because it helps patients, you know, we want to [00:05:10] work to make sure patients have access to better treatments, get better therapies can make better decisions about their [00:05:20] health, all these kind of different things.

[00:05:22] Alexander: Yet, there can be other things. And as a And purpose has this kind of interesting [00:05:30] side to it that you cannot define what is purpose for another person. Purpose comes from [00:05:40] within. You need for yourself to identify what is purpose for you, what makes sense for you, what is important for you. [00:05:50] However, that doesn’t mean that as a supervisor, as a leader, and I’m thinking here also in terms of leadership without [00:06:00] direct reports, it doesn’t mean that you can’t make an offer in terms of purpose.

[00:06:06] Alexander: You can say, well, we do this because we want [00:06:10] to make sure that We treat the right patients and not the wrong patients, because we want to do this because we want to reduce the side effects, [00:06:20] or we want to increase the response or whatever. Now purpose is the first thing. [00:06:30] The second thing is mastery.

[00:06:34] Alexander: Mastery means that we all want to get better at our craft. [00:06:40] That is something that really drives us and that motivates us. And it is you can see it, you know, all the [00:06:50] time if you go to a conference, yes, all these technical sessions. are packed with people from statistics, programming, data science, people want to learn [00:07:00] more about the latest tools, technologies, all these kind of different things.

[00:07:04] Alexander: They want to learn and, and apply it and improve it. People [00:07:10] love to improve their craft. They want to master their craft. And learning something new getting better at it. [00:07:20] That just means you need to have opportunity to become better at something. You need to have [00:07:30] something that challenges you, that where you can learn and apply something new, whether that is from a, Knowledge [00:07:40] point of view.

[00:07:40] Alexander: Maybe you learn about a new therapeutic area, or that is more from a statistical methodological point of view. You learn [00:07:50] more about patient designs or about multiplicity, or maybe it is more about the programming part that you learn more about R [00:08:00] or how you can apply certain more advanced techniques in SARS or R or what.

[00:08:06] Alexander: Whatever other, um, platform. [00:08:10] So, mastery is the second part. The third part is autonomy. Autonomy is [00:08:20] pretty clear. Whenever you have reported once to a micromanager, then you have the absence of autonomy. And that is really doing [00:08:30] motivating. There’s hardly something that is more motivating than being controlled all the time, or being told exactly [00:08:40] what to do.

[00:08:42] Alexander: Go there, move this, apply that, and you literally have no freedom [00:08:50] in terms of choosing what you really want to do. That’s a problem. Give people autonomy to [00:09:00] have it their way. Give them a goal instead of telling them exactly what to do. This [00:09:10] is much better leadership. So, in a summary, make sure that you offer [00:09:20] the people you work with purpose, that they understand the purpose, the bigger picture.

[00:09:25] Alexander: That they can improve their craft, that they [00:09:30] can become a better statistician, programmer, data scientist, and lastly, that they have the freedom to do it their way. [00:09:40] And of course, they need help, you know, then of course offer help. But this is really, really important. Always make sure that the people you work [00:09:50] with most of the time, fulfill these three things.

[00:09:54] Alexander: Purpose, autonomy, and mastery. And of course for yourself, have a look into [00:10:00] this. What are the things where one of these is lacking? These are probably the things where you’re very not, where you’re not motivated. [00:10:10] And where all three things come together, these are the things where you’re motivated. Have fun with this Further Friday episode.

[00:10:19] Alexander: [00:10:20] I hope that helps you to be more effective in your career.