
To motivate people, talk about the context of the work to be done - anacleto
https://www.sametab.com/blog/employee-engagement
======
pjmorris
“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the
work, and give orders.

Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

\- Antoine de Saint Exupéry

~~~
munchbunny
This is great if you have something worth yearning for.

"Teach them to crave fast data insight from the their analytics software for
marketing campaigns" lacks the same sense of romance or moral imperative.

I'll acknowledge that's a bit tongue in cheek and not being charitable to the
underlying point as it applies to day to day work, but I also think that this
snark often applies to the "missions" that some/many Silicon Valley startups
proclaim for enterprisey, salesey products, because I think those missions are
a form of self-delusion about how much good you're really doing for society,
as opposed to just making money because there's value to be captured.

~~~
8ytecoder
A good leader can put a twist on that - "Let's improve the accuracy of ad
targeting so small businesses can reduce their spend but attract customers and
grow" or "Let's connect the world. Let's help unite lost friends."

~~~
munchbunny
Oh, absolutely, and being a former tech worker in the advertising industry,
I'm intimately familiar with that line of thinking. When you're trying to
inspire the workers, it works (I used it), but now I hate it for the
dishonesty of the framing. That's also why it'll take very unique
circumstances for me to ever go back to that industry.

~~~
shostack
>"Teach them to crave fast data insight from the their analytics software for
marketing campaigns" lacks the same sense of romance or moral imperative."

I'm not sure what your specific role in the industry was. However while it may
not have the same sense of romance or moral imperative as something else, it
can still help rally great teams around causes. I've found people,
particularly teams of data-driven marketers, can get quite excited when seeing
a business grow directly because of insights they distilled from data. It's
the feeling of making a tangible impact.

~~~
munchbunny
I won't discuss my specific role in order to keep what shred of my anonymity
might be left.

My response was mostly aimed at statements like one of 8ytecoder's examples:
_" Let's improve the accuracy of ad targeting so small businesses can reduce
their spend but attract customers and grow"_. This is because the focus on
small businesses is often a foil, and reality is much more morally ambiguous.

Actual small businesses are at the far end of the long tail. Very few
companies primarily serve small businesses or primarily make their money from
small businesses. In practice, in order of how much money is spent, the list
goes: (1) large brands, (2) local/state franchises and political campaigns,
(3) small businesses.

Most companies (Google/Facebook, for example) might coincidentally serve small
businesses, but the real infrastructure and engineering investments are for
the other two groups.

Small businesses tend to be the least sophisticated of the campaigns, because
they honestly don't need much sophistication. Their numbers are too low to
bring in real data science anyway, so it's more about being savvy at community
presence. However, when you get to franchises and politics, the sophistication
really kicks in.

Also, some of those small/medium businesses were for things like predatory
lending companies. That realization made me stop and think for a moment about
what "small business" actually meant.

Point being that I've seen and used (earnestly, at the time) small businesses
as a sort moral foil while actually aspiring to develop technology for the
other groups. And you believe it because you're paid to believe it.

~~~
shostack
In general I agree with everything you're stating wrt accuracy of the
statement. In context of motivation though, people are all different. And in
this case I think there's a type of person who is internally motivated by
seeing the results of their decisions and hard work.

In that context, trying to make it about the businesses you are serving
(external validation) may not be as interesting to that person as making it
about them finding the key to the optimization settings that unlocked growth
for the team and business that is credited to them. Helping them celebrate via
recognition or whatever else drives that individual can let them get more out
of the win than they otherwise would have, and become more engaged in their
role.

------
mdorazio
Cynical take: this is all great until it becomes clear to people that the
context is actually "one of the executives wants a promotion". Or increasingly
common: "profits matter more than any of our purported 'values'".

It gets hard to motivate people when they know they're working on things that
are detrimental to the public in some way, or that only exist to make other
people look good. Trying to fluff the context in these cases tends to just
make people even less motivated because they're not stupid.

~~~
Jtsummers
I'd take all of those things as positives.

If the work provides no value and the workers discover it, and stop working on
it, the world is better off.

If the work provides negative value (to society) and the workers discover it,
and stop working on it, the world is better off.

People should work on things which provide value to themselves, their
community, and the world at large. They shouldn't be working on things that
actively destroy those. And if the only reason they're working on them is
because of a lack of awareness of their impact, then let them learn.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
"People should work on things which provide value to themselves, their
community, and the world at large. They shouldn't be working on things that
actively destroy those."

Unfortunately, lots of folks are working on things whose sole value truly is
to put food on the table at home. I think there are few janitors that enjoy
cleaning toilets, especially if they work for places where the workers or the
public smear feces on the walls. Few folks get motivated to clean portable
toilets or to work for minimum wage at a fast food place. Few folks are truly
motivated to work retail.

And it doesn't matter that some of these give some small benefit to the
community nor that things like fast food is a mixed thing (fast food both
provides a benefit and destroys the community) or that lots of laborious jobs
tend to destroy one's body - and it only takes one injury or heart attack to
make one out of work.

It isn't because they lack awareness of their impact or anything, but more
that folks need to survive. Not everyone can get a job with your description
for a wide variety of reasons. Besides, at the end of the day society still
needs folks to shower old folks in homes and to clean portable toilets, no
matter how much they don't fit in your description.

------
wjossey
This isn’t bad advice, or wrong, just recognize that it’s not universal.
Motivations vary from person to person, team to team, company to company.

If you want to know how to motivate a person, start by asking them. Maybe they
will be self aware enough to identify what it is, maybe not. If they don’t
know what motivates them, ask them to take some time over the next week to
reflect on a time where they were motivated at their job, and you can discuss
it further in your next one on one. Then, take that scenario and start to
deconstruct it. What was it about this time that was different than other
situations? How long did that motivation last? Who were they working with at
that time, and how much did the people play a role in keeping you motivated?
How much do factors like stress and salary impact motivation for them?

Motivation is also fluid. What motivates someone at 25 is different than at
35. At 25 I craved recognition for having potential. At 35 I crave autonomy.
Some fundamental components haven’t changed, but the overall story has.

So, when in doubt, and even when not in doubt, start by asking.

~~~
pm215
Personally I find being asked to engage in introspection like "reflect on a
time when you were motivated at your job" pretty demotivating. I'm terrible at
it, and it's a huge timesink with negative associations to things like
interviews and having to write up annual performance review text.

~~~
wjossey
All the more to my point. You’d have a pretty crisp answer if I asked you in a
1:1, what motivates you. No need for the introspection.

But, you can’t expect your manager or anyone to know that about you unless
you’re willing to share it. A good manager will understand this is
demotivating and work within those boundaries. But, unfortunately managers
aren’t clairvoyant, so we do need to hear it from you :)

~~~
pm215
Yeah, no, I wouldn't. I might at best have a vague idea of what might be
motivating. Like I said, I don't do introspection -- I could tell you if I'm
happy or not happy at work, but if the answer's not happy that doesn't mean I
know why.

------
nathan_compton
The subtext of every article like this is "How to motivate people (without
paying them more or giving them equity)."

In many, perhaps most, situations, people are working to build things they
don't own. That is the context. Any other spin on the context is just
manipulation.

This stuff might work on some people, but, as a regular employee, I'm most
motivated by frankness from my bosses. Nothing turns me off faster than
platitudes about the purpose of our work or why I should be motivated by it.

~~~
nicoburns
I'm pretty motivated by context / explanantion of purpose. If I'm just given
platitudes, that doesn't count. I want to know why we're _really_ doing this
(so agree on frankness), and if I don't like the answer, I probably won't be
sticking around for long.

To a point, this is more important to me than pay or equity.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
So, the boss is only a 100x-millionaire and really wants to own his own island
before he's 30. Let's knuckle down and do it!

Realism, surely isn't motivating in a capitalist society, you're working to
make someone else richer in most jobs, someone else who is already rich.

------
poulsbohemian
When I think about people I've managed or observed, along with the way that
clients or managers have treated me, I see a fallacy where differing
expectations or needs are substituted for motivation. For example, I recently
walked away from a project where the client kept restating the priority and
the work context, both of which were well understood. The problem was that the
project needed a legit budget and team - it wasn't a question of motivation,
but reality on the ground. Likewise when I think about people I've managed who
on the surface seemed unmotivated, the real problems were more subtle - one
guy was clearly depressed but also didn't have the skills for the job. Another
was going through a bad divorce and really needed a lot more money for the
legal war chest. Still another was tired of so much work travel and really
wanted to be in a different career. I'm sure there are people who legitimately
lack intrinsic motivation, but more often than not my experience has been is
doesn't have anything to do with not understanding the context of the work
(though I'm sure that was itself be demoralizing).

------
ken
Boeing tried this a lot back when I worked there. Our managers would talk
about how their airplanes enabled people to trade with people across the
globe, and brought people together.

It's hard to see the high-level talk as anything but just talk when the
systems you have to deal with on a daily basis are a tire fire. Initech tried
to talk a good game, too.

I suppose some people are motivated that way, but I care most about my daily
process. If the process makes me miserable, no amount of "context" will
motivate me.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I guess the question is "if we make zero profit, and have to reduce management
level wages to achieve greater fuel efficiency in [our part of] global trade,
then we're going to do that then, right?".

The answer is going to be "well of course the shareholders deserve profits",
or something similar?

------
malvosenior
Best way to motivate people? Trust them.

Trust is _extremely_ rare in the modern work place. From grueling interview
loops designed to weed out "fakers" to open offices, to micro managers, to
always on Slackers...

A little bit of trust goes a long way. Find good people and don't treat them
like they're out to rip you off and their motivation will flow.

------
Jordanpomeroy
I find ownership to be motivating. Good leaders inspire me to own results, but
also empower me to own the “how”. When I do not own the method of obtaining
success, I do not feel like I truly am responsible for success. The truth is,
with more complex work, good leaders realize they’re at the mercy of those
that do the work, because of the complexity only the people actually doing the
work have complete understanding of the system. Therefore, the best card to
play is to be very clear about the desired outcome, including the whole
strategy and context behind it, and hope the team owns it all.

~~~
paulriddle
It's funny how carefully you're stepping around financially rewarding people
who do the work. It's like you know your status does not allow you to own the
money generated, so you're settling for owning the results, the process, the
method, the responsibility, the all. You are weak.

------
waitwhatwhoa
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and
don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the
endless immensity of the sea.

\--Antoine de Saint Exupery

------
jascii
I have always found that as an employee, I can play an active role in this.
Ask questions, do research, find out how your work relates to the bigger
picture. This (and yes, sometimes combined with some mild self-deception) can
go a long way towards staying motivated. It does sometimes bring up the
question whether I shouldn't be asking those questions for myself and work for
myself though ;)

------
tombert
Maybe I'm an outlier (being a wannabe intellectual), but I feel like for me I
honestly don't care too much about the grander scope of stuff as much as the
actual individual problems I want to solve.

I like solving problems with concurrency and networking stuff, and typically
don't pay much attention to how it affects the rest of the organization. I
have some ethical issues with marketing, and worked on the adtech team of a
company for two years for this reason.

I suspect this drives virtually any employer who I work with crazy, since they
typically try and motivate me by telling me all of the cool stuff my work is
going to do.

------
phumbe
I've encountered this being used as a crutch for poor employee performance on
a software project focused on replacing a legacy application.

An employee with little programming experience used his supposed lack of
context as an excuse for poor work and disinterest despite having been given
an overview of (1) what the legacy software does and why, (2) the broader
project goals, and (3) the immediate project goal (i.e., replacing the
existing software). The employee similarly hid behind their lack of technical
understanding, asking questions to "learn" but ignoring the answers.

------
esotericn
It's funny. I've never really gotten on with working at large companies.
Fundamentally I think this is why.

Most large companies do not have a context for work done.

If they do, risk and reward is detached from it entirely.

The rest of the company forms a huge buffer such that you can do really well,
or really badly, and it normally won't matter that much.

If there are levels of management that are "too important" for me to speak to,
I'm out.

------
Invictus0
I interned for a major defense contractor on a top secret contract. I did not
have a security clearance, nor did several of my coworkers, and we had no idea
what it was we were doing, at all. My job consisted of "Do this task" with
absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. I hated that job passionately and
definitely agree with the author that contextualizing your work matters.

------
meddlin
More fundamental than context, stop telling me your sole purpose is to make
money. That's a one-way ticket to turning me off of any attempt to ever
increasing my engagement as an employee.

Your business exists to solve a problem, which then makes money. Otherwise, I
expect your business to be in finance or the government's treasury--then your
#1 is "to make money".

~~~
pbhjpbhj
It's oft repeated on HN that companies have a duty to make money for their
shareholders as that's why they exist, to make money.

Not true of all companies, but certainly true of many AFAICT.

------
mntmoss
In my opinion, every great work needs its justifying myth. If you don't have
that, you won't have the confidence to pursue it further.

That doesn't mean that the myth is necessarily a good, ethical or healthy one.
A lot of myths are of the form of "worthy sacrifice." Others are of the
"defending oneself" sort, or the "ascent to greatness". The myth is made to
fit the times and the task.

Organizations, and teams in those organizations, often take on their myths
without consciously thinking about it. But it's absolutely critical to have
them there to set the tone and allow everyone to proceed on the same page.

------
udkl
This doesn't paint the entire picture.

One way to motivate people is to make sure they understand the 'why' behind
the work.

A step in making them understand the 'why' is talking about the broader
context (which the article is about).

------
liotier
Auftragstaktik - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-
type_tactics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics)

------
ngrilly
Reminds me of the military concept of "commander's intent". By knowing the
broader purpose of a mission, subordinates are able to take initiatives if and
when necessary.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Surely you have the same problems in war as in capitalism: that if the
commander's intent is to have you all die in order to make an overall gain
elsewhere then it may well not help to know their intent.

------
erokar
Sometimes the product/context isn't very meaningful. Sometimes the company's
end goal is negative. E.g: Facebook. Their employees are probably more
motivated if they suppress the fact that the context/goal is to suck as much
information as possible from their users to target ads at them.

------
nlawalker
In my experience, one reason this doesn't happen is because it's a lot easier
for middle managers to carve out tasks and assign them then it is to corral
and coordinate a bunch of enthusiastic people trying to help. It's easier for
them to take credit for the work done in the end as well.

------
Jorge1o1
Looks like they’re mostly talking about Task Identity from Hackman and
Oldham’s Job Characteristics Theory

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_characteristic_theory](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_characteristic_theory)

------
jarnix
This reminds me of the people who are/were working on building weapons, they
are/were not aware of the context of their work, for example they were
building small pieces of large weapons but not knowing the full plan.

------
perl4ever
I've had two jobs for more or less public sector entities, and they were
conspicuously more interested in new employees understanding the complete
organization and its purpose.

------
dboreham
This is spot on. Unfortunately in my (long) experience often the aspiring
motivators do not understand the context, leaving it to the underlings to
attempt to reverse engineer it.

------
andrewflnr
It's funny, and sad, to see this on the front page at the same time as the
story about Google cancelling TGIF.

------
dwoozle
This works great when you are developing the polio vaccine. But in the wrong
hands this is just an illegitimate tool of power. Plenty of people joined
companies like Facebook because they were made to believe that they were truly
changing the world for the better... the ability to fool people like that is
just corporate demagoguery.

------
markjspivey
we can’t conflate nor confuse the interrogatives (who for what for when for
where for why for how) ...

things being talked about are merely distinct, and certainly not
interchangeable either / ors .

------
iamwahwah
Leaders inspire, managers motivate.

~~~
Rainymood
I would argue: leaders lead and managers manage.

------
kissgyorgy
I really need this article! I tried to start a startup with friends multiple
times already, but the end result always was they cancelled. I think I
overwhelmed them listing all the things needed to do in order to succeed.

