Membership bodies to a great extent rely on member motivation. Whether in relation to lending their time to participate in events, successfully completing CPD programs, or simply joining, members need to feel a positive impetus to do so and to continue to do so throughout their career. When it comes to motivation techniques, there is a huge disconnect in what social science knows and what businesses and organisations do.
Psychologists distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The former is doing something for its own sake, while the latter is doing something in order to experience something else, such as a reward. In many aspects of our professional lives we will encounter extrinsic (also referred to as “if-then”) motivation. If we go to work, we get a pay check at the end of the month. If we do well, we are rewarded with a bonus. But are traditional rewards always as effective as we think?
Rewards stifle productivity
Traditional reward-based motivation works well with routine, rule-based work (i.e. Here’s the manual, the team that assembles the Ikea cupboard the fastest gets £100). As long as the task involves mechanical skill, bonuses work as expected – the higher the incentive, the better the performance. However, in this day and age most of the tasks we are faced with are more complex and require a creative solution. Research shows that extrinsic motivation does not help productivity in cognitive assignments. In fact, rewards narrow your focus, thereby stifling your ability to be creative and, ultimately, productive. The London School of Economics is one of many universities to have conducted research in this field. They examined 51 ‘pay for performance’ cases and found that not only was the impact on overall performance negative, but also that higher incentives lead to worse performance.
Let the work be the reward
So how does one motivate people effectively? The answer has to revolve around a more intrinsic approach. We all have an innate desire to do things because they matter, because we find them interesting and because we have a yearning to be part of something larger than ourselves. Traditional management will work if you want compliance, but if you want engagement, as is the case with membership organisations, self-direction is a better approach. A very successful example comes from 21st century giant Google, where employees can use 20% of their time to work on whatever they please. This works so well that around half of new Google products each year are created within that autonomous time.
With professional membership bodies there’s a tremendous opportunity to evoke these innate desires – to be that ‘greater something’ members would want to be a part of. Rewards for participation (or punishment for not) will only make it feel a chore rather than a privilege. The key is communication. The language you use, the brand you build and how you involve members has to be intrinsically motivational rather than that uninspiring dangling carrot.