When creating teams, motivating people is important. I think Intrinsic motivation (motivation coming from the inside) is much more important then external motivation.
IT people care a lot about their work. Hell, we create a lot of Holy war’s because we care so much.
This summer my 5 year old son was learning to swim. He enjoyed the challenge. He wanted to tell people I can swim. He was proud of what he was doing.
He did not need me to motivate him (Not to say that a little encouragement did not help.)
Actually when I promised to buy him a pair of swimming glasses when he could swim he lost interest in learning to swim.
==> I killed the intrinsic motivation by offering external motivation.
Because that intrinsic motivation is so important with people, a big part of BootCamp (Now rebranded as Reboot) is focused on Personal alignment. When people know what they want and what their team mates want, creating a shared vision is easy.
And we all know that a team with a shared vision will be much more productive then a team without a vision or a team with a "management vision".
Mike Griffith wrote about a free Mastering Personal Agility Webinar. I missed it, but I think I would have liked it.
I will definitely check out Christopher Avery’s book: “Teamwork is an Individual Skill”
So what motivates me? I enjoy creating a team, where people create great results. Seeing people go the extra mile because they want their project to succeed. That’s what I want from my work.
My personal alignment is Peace. I want to feel more peaceful. Creating such a team might give less peace (as we have to go through the Storming phase)
I don’t mind because the peace there is before such a team is not really peace for me, it feels more like cold war.
Now it’s up to you, what motivates you?
Update: if you are interested in Intrinsic motivation, you might also be interested in my 7 tips to compensate a team
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