Unleashing Team Motivation: The Power of Purpose and Autonomy

In my early days as a project manager, I thought my main job was to take the requirements and technical architecture documents created before the project began, break them into tasks, and assign those tasks to my team. Tracking progress and reporting to the sponsor seemed like a natural part of the process.

Only later did I realise that by taking on these responsibilities myself, I left no room for the team's creativity, and as a result, they weren't very motivated. They were as motivated as other teams around me, so it took a while to see there was another way.

The shift in my thinking happened over a decade of reading, experimentation and coincidences. A pivotal moment came when I watched Simon Sinek's TED Talk, "Start with Why". His core message resonated with me: "If we don't know why we're doing something, our project will fail".

This idea is perfectly captured in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when the Cheshire Cat says:

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."

I've previously written about the importance of governing towards an outcome rather than scope or plans. This approach means articulating the "why" of every project so that every team member is aligned and moving in the same direction.

The other side of this is that autonomy fuels motivation. To give a team autonomy, a clear purpose must first be established. The only way to avoid micromanaging a team is to give them a goal, not a list of tasks.

Setting a scope-based goal doesn't work because it doesn't address the "why". In project management, the "why" should align with the business case's benefits, not just the cost side of things.

When a team fully understands the "why" behind their work, they become highly motivated, because they're chasing a real-world goal, not just completing a feature, phase, document or bit of infrastructure.

However, being clear about the goal and still micromanaging the team can be just as demotivating. When we dictate the steps, we block their creativity and enthusiasm. Often, the team will disagree with how we've broken down the tasks—and most of the time, they're right.

So, autonomy is just as important as clear goals when building a high-performance team. An unmotivated team simply can't perform at the same level as a motivated one.

We can set guardrails if needed, but these should be minimal. Teams should have the freedom to choose their technologies and the scope of what they build. All we need to do is hold them accountable for the outcome, not the path they take to get there.

I've worked this way for two decades, and the teams I've been part of remain largely the same, even though we've moved through various projects and roles over time. We keep coming back together because we know it's going to be fun and highly motivating.

It's the holy grail of teamwork, but it's much simpler to achieve than you might think.

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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