Using Intrinsic Motivators to Drive Standards and Innovation in Knowledge Management

Driving standards and innovation might, on the face of it, seem like they would require very different approaches. On the one hand achieving acceptable levels of quality or service, on the other introducing new ideas, ways of working or systems. After all, if something is truly innovative it is by definition without precedent and can therefore have no established standards against which to judge it.

Since standards are crystalline and innovation is fluid how can we make use of the same intrinsic motivators to drive both?

Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose 

In his 2009 book ‘Drive’, Dan Pink distils research on motivation into three core drivers; 

·      Autonomy– being free to act and feeling a sense of agency.

·      Mastery– demonstrating, and being recognised for expertise.

·      Purpose– feeling connected to a larger purpose aligned to your own values.

Surprisingly few organisations have learned to successfully draw on these intrinsic motivators to bring about overall competitive advantage. However, Atlassian is one corporation cited by Pink that has, and it is of particular interest because the competitive advantage from these intrinsic motivators was leveraged through what we would recognise as knowledge management. You can read about Atlassian’s ‘FedEx’ days here: https://www.atlassian.com/company/shipit

Allowing staff to have autonomy, display mastery and connect to purpose can be especially powerful in the world of knowledge management because its overall goals are well aligned to these motivators. By sharing tacit knowledge we demonstrate mastery, we serve and are thereby connected to the organisation’s purpose, and because we cannot be coerced into sharing tacit knowledge we are exercising autonomy when we do so. 

But even though all three drivers are activated when contributing to a community of practice, say, how much more could we achieve if we recruited them more thoughtfully to the service of standards and innovation? If, in other words, we planned and delivered activities, processes, systems and leadership with these intrinsic motivators in mind?

If we accept as a brief definition of innovation ‘the result of a process that brings together various novel ideas in such a way that they affect society’ then autonomy in particular is key to innovation. Why? Because, by definition, innovation cannot take place without individuals thinking and acting autonomously.

As leaders we can be unnerved by allowing our teams more autonomy because at some level it diminishes or removes entirely our influence from what is being delivered. But that is the whole point – as Steve Jobs once put it:

“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs

And yet innovation would almost certainly fail in a climate of autonomy without collaboration – because innovation must bring ideastogether. Together around what though? Collaboration needs a rallying point. That rallying point is a clear purpose. It is crucial therefore that leaders give proper attention to the overall purpose. To achieve that they must:

• Decide
• Disseminate and
• Demonstrate the purpose

If any of these ‘Ds’ are missing it will be difficult for those delivering to find a secure rallying point around which to coalesce. By defining and clearly communicating the purpose, and modelling it through their own behaviour, leaders provide this rallying point not only for innovation, but for the activities of the whole organisation. And that includes standards.

How vs What 

Where innovation gives autonomy to what we are doing, standards benefit from giving autonomy to how things are done. While we may wish to be more prescriptive about how we go about innovation giving greater freedom to what the innovation is, standards are much more concerned about what we deliver. And that can leave plenty of scope for individuals and teams to have autonomy about how they do it. 

Writing standards with this in mind also allows greater scope for innovation. This idea is now common practice in the US military for example. According to Four Star General Robert Brown, the US military has moved away from telling people what to do and how to do it to a more ‘empowering’ style where orders define outcomes leaving the means of achieving them to those closer to the reality on the ground. As he puts it “I give someone an outcome I want - they figure out how to get there; they’ll amaze you with what they do.”

So, having decided, disseminated and demonstrated a clear purpose around which standards and innovation can be delivered, and allowed teams the autonomy over what or how to deliver depending on what is most appropriate, allow them to display mastery of the knowledge, skills and expertise that you hired them for in the first place.

Maybe you too will be amazed at what gets delivered.

James Brown MSc MBPsS MABP

Business Psychologist | Facilitator | PERMA Coach

James will be chairing the https://kmsummit.co.uk on 4-5 June 2019, at The Cumberland Hotel, London. View the programme here: https://kmsummit.co.uk/sites/kmsummit.co.uk/files/km_2019_agenda_0.pdf