Why Talk

Why am I here? Why am I doing this job? What drives me? Yeah, this is where we get down to the nitty gritty. The Why Talk offers an opportunity to take a closer look at our motivation. Many scientists have already devoted themselves to the topic of motivation and found out that money is a hygiene factor – and not a motivating factor. In a best case scenario, a hygiene factor leads to the fact that one is not dissatisfied. It can therefore prevent dissatisfaction, but it does not lead to satisfaction or motivation. The employer, therefore, has to put enough money on the table to prevent employee dissatisfaction.

So, what are the real motivating factors? We found what we were looking for in Daniel Pink’s video “The surprising truth about what motivates us.” Here we learned that there are three basic drivers of motivation: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. We are dedicating this #workhack to Purpose.

The format of the Why Talk is three-tiered.

1. First, you come together as a team or department and each team member answers the questions: Why am I here? Why am I not somewhere else?
2. In the second stage (we recommend about one month later), the team comes together and asks itself: Why does this department exist? What benefit do we bring to the company?
3. After another month, the third stage follows with the questions: do we really need to deal with tasks that we are convinced are not helpful to the company and/or its customers? Can we define the task differently so that it is more beneficial to the company and/or its customers? With whom exactly would this change need to be discussed and who from our team is best equipped to do this?

The third stage is a recurring one. At the beginning, we recommend working on these questions separately and monthly – after a bit of practice, you can try integrating these questions into the jour fixe.