What leaders can do to build motivation.
Facilitated conversation on what genuinely motivates people in a team context, what leaders tend to get wrong, and what participants can deliberately do to create better conditions.
Motivation by Design shifts the session from personal reflection to deliberate practice. Using the motivators framework and the experience in the room, the discussion examines what genuinely drives the people participants work with, what common leadership behaviours undermine motivation without leaders realising, and what specific changes make the biggest difference. Because this is an open session with participants from different organisations, the diversity of experience makes for a rich conversation.
Participants identify one or two specific changes they can make, in how they work or how they lead, to create better conditions for motivation.
Open with a direct question about what most kills motivation, give people a moment to answer privately, then open a discussion that moves from what is wrong to what would help. Keep pulling people from the general towards the specific.
Write a direct question up where everyone can see it: what is the single most common thing leaders do that kills motivation in the people around them? Give people two minutes to write their answer privately before you open the discussion.
Open the discussion, starting with people's answers to the opening question, which tends to generate a lively and honest response quickly. Then broaden it: what do the most motivating leaders you have worked with actually do, and what is specific about it; which of the three drivers, autonomy, mastery, or purpose, do leaders most often underestimate; and what is one thing you could change in how you lead or work with others that would improve motivation for at least one person? Keep pulling the conversation from the general towards the specific, so that 'leaders should give people more autonomy' becomes 'I could give this person more control over how they approach this task.' Some of the most useful insights come from people naming something that demotivated them and then examining what a different approach would have looked like.
Draw the threads together and name the common patterns, moving the group from what is wrong to what would help without rushing the first part.
Use Motivation by Design when a group wants to work out what leaders can do to build motivation. A direct opening question and shared experience surface what genuinely drives people, and each person leaves with one or two specific changes to make.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
