"When we surveyed hundreds of managers around the world...95 percent of these leaders fundamentally misunderstood the most important source of motivation...the conventional rules miss the fundamental act of good management: managing for progress."
- The Progress Principle, pages 3 & 10
"[O]ur research is unambiguous. As inner work life rises and falls, so does performance...making progress in meaningful work is the most powerful stimulant to great inner work life."- The Progress Principle, pages 45 & 74
Ask any manager what motivates their top workers, what would turn their laggards around, and they’ll comment on carrots and sticks. Extrinsic rewards and punishment are the average manager’s first (and often last) resort.
It turns out that’s wrong. Studying data collected in real time from dozens of employees at seven companies, progress was the outstanding causative factor. Whether the company was floundering or flying, whether their manager was a saint or a jerk, it was the daily small wins which motivated people to try harder, to come up with more creative solutions, and to be happier while doing more.
The Progress Principle states that progress contributes to positive inner work life, which contributes to progress, creating an upward spiral of creativity, engagement, and performance.
Inner work life is defined as “the confluence of perceptions, emotions, and motivations that individuals experience as they react to and make sense of the events of their workday.” It is inner because it is invisible to others, including supervisors. It relates to work because that’s where it takes place, and that’s what it affects. And it is life because it is ongoing, growing and changing, and affects life outside work.
Whether it’s employees, partners, co-workers, or our own children, fostering positive inner work life creates happiness while motivating greater performance. insight #1 describes some ways to do this. insight #2 highlights a critical warning about the asymmetry of good and bad events.
"[C]atalysts are triggers directed at the project, nourishers are interpersonal triggers, directed at the person."- The Progress Principle, page 82
Catalysts, actions which affect work, and nourishers, events which affect people, are powerful because while they contribute to progress, even before that, they contribute to positive inner work life. The effects of catalysts and nourishers are immediate.
These are actions all of us can take to contribute to progress and positive inner work life in others.
The 7 Major Catalysts:
The 4 Major Nourishers:
Catalysts have opposites: inhibitors. Nourishers have opposites: toxins. The research confirmed the findings of a 2001 study: bad events carry more weight than their positive counterparts.
"The power of setbacks to increase frustration is more than three times as strong as the power of progress to decrease frustration."- The Progress Principle, page 92
Humans are risk-averse, loss-averse. If you lose $10 you need to gain $20 to make up the emotional loss. Most people won’t gamble unless they’re likely to win at least twice what they’re risking.
Inner work life is affected by the same rule: setbacks diminish happiness more than twice as much as progress boosts it, and increase frustration more than three times as much as progress decreases it.
The message is clear: a manager’s greatest risk is allowing inhibitors and toxins in the workplace. Smoothing the path, then, becomes a manager’s most important task. Pete Drucker said the goal was “to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual.”
These days most work is intrinsically meaningful. There are four mechanisms which can negate that meaning, damaging inner work life:
Besides avoiding these inhibiting toxic behaviors, engage in these four catalyzing nourishing behaviors:
Emphasizing the power of small wins, The Progress Principle shows that baby steps are cumulative, not just practically, but emotionally. Progress, however small, contributes to joy, engagement, and creativity.
Steven Kramer is an independent researcher and writer in Wayland, Massachusetts. He received his undergraduate degree in psychology from UCLA, and his doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Virginia. Kramer’s current research interests include adult development, the meaning of work in human life, and the subjective experience of everyday events inside organizations (inner work life). Previously, he researched the perceptual and cognitive development of infants and young children.
