Drive: Autonomy

Introduction

In my last article, I summarized the harmful effects that external rewards could potentially bring based on Daniel Pink’s book Drive. When misused, external rewards can result in stifled creativity and bad behavior.

But the question remains: How should companies seek to motivate their employees? What are the essential ingredients that keep people both motivated and creative? How do we move beyond Motivation 2.0's carrots and sticks and into Motivation 3.0, where creativity and intrinsic motivation can flourish?

The first essential ingredient is autonomy.

Autonomy

Autonomy means having the freedom to choose. According to Deci and Ryan, psychology researchers from the University of Rochester, it is one of our innate psychological needs (Pink 70). Because of this, they say, "We should focus our efforts on creating environments for our innate psychological needs (autonomy being one) to flourish.” Those who are autonomously motivated, or intrinsically motivated, show greater conceptual understanding, higher productivity, less burnout, and greater levels of psychological well-being. In a study involving 320 small businesses, those that gave their employees some degree of autonomy grew at four times the rate and had one-third the turnover (Pink 88-89).

How Is It Done?

But we can’t have everyone off doing their own thing. I mean, we are running a business, right? We need a bottom line. Autonomy does not imply a lack of accountability. However, it does mean giving the power to choose to those doing the work. How have some companies done this? Here are just a few and their results:

Atlassian--ShipIt Days

Atlassian does something called ShipIt days. Once a quarter, Atlassian gives their employees 24 hours to work on whatever they want and with whomever they want. At the end of the 24 hours, teams present their work, and the winning team earns the prize: bragging rights. There may be some drinks and cake involved as well.

 What does this do for their culture? Workers are energized, innovative products and solutions emerge, and the whole company celebrates. Watch the video on the provided link--it’s a valuable 4 minutes.

Google-20% time

Google is well-known for its 20% time. Google tells its employees to use 20% of their time to work on side projects. Gmail, Google AdSense, and Google Translate have all emerged from this 20% time. Although a quick search makes it unclear how strongly Google implements this practice now, it has been a powerful way for them to give their employees autonomy to work on projects they are passionate about and watch their creativity soar.

After learning of Google's 20% time, I asked my wife, a data analyst at a small company, what she would do if she had 20% of her time to work on side projects. “Automate everything!” she exclaimed. The thought of that kind of autonomy energized her. Does it do the same for you?

Pull a Valve

Valve, a company known for its steam platform and video games, is an entirely flat company. They have no management. Their reasoning? “Telling [people] to sit at a desk and do what they’re told obliterates 99% of their value. We want innovators, and that means maintaining an environment where they’ll flourish” (Valve New Employee Handbook). Workers have complete freedom to select what they want to work on. Nobody tells them what to do. It seems a little crazy, right? For them, it works.

What About Scrum?

But how does this principle of autonomy apply in a Scrum context? In Sprint Planning, the why, what, and how of the next sprint is “created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team” (Scrum Guide 2020). Nobody tells the team the ultimate why, what, and how of the sprint. The team is empowered by the organization (the PO even has the purse), and they are collectively accountable for producing a valuable and useful increment. In short, the team has autonomy (of course, they constantly collaborate with stakeholders and take in their input and feedback, but they make the final decisions themselves).

Even within the team, the sprint backlog belongs to the developers. It is theirs to own and manage. The Scrum Guide is clear: “No one else tells them (the developers) how to turn Product Backlog items into Increments of value.” The developers pull the work into the sprint backlog and have autonomy over how to create the increment.

An autonomous Scrum team is a motivated Scrum team. When the PO has the autonomy to make the final call (which means having the purse), they take on much responsibility, yes, but it also fuels their motivation and creativity. There is no red tape holding them back. Additionally, the developers have autonomy over the sprint backlog. They should have the freedom to experiment and be creative on how best to fulfill the sprint goal. A complex domain requires such.

What’s your experience on a scrum team? Is your PO empowered by having control over the budget? Do non-developers try to tell them how to do their work? Have you seen other anti-patterns that affect the scrum team's autonomy? What is your 15% solution--a small step your team can take toward greater self-management? Let me know in the comments!

Conclusion

Giving up control can be difficult. But the research, as well as a few stellar companies, shows that people who are given autonomy are more intrinsically motivated and have greater creativity.

In my next article, I’ll discuss the next ingredient for Motivation 3.0--mastery.