Using Motivation 3.0 with CDWs

Mary DeCoster, MPHCoordinator for Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) Programs

TOPS / Food for the Hungry Tom Davis, MPH

Senior Specialist for SBC(TOPS Project) & Chief Program Officer / FH

Some Questions We will Explore• Under what conditions do performance-based

incentives work and not work? And what are the dangers of using them indiscriminately?

• When should we pay CDWs and when should we use volunteer CDWs?

Ruler Exercise: Agree/Disagree• Its important or necessary to use mostly monetary or in-kind

incentives to get community-level workers to get things done in our food security programs

(1=Strongly Disagree; 10 = Strongly Agree)• I have the knowledge and skills needed to motivate

community-level volunteers to get things done in our food security programs

• Kinshasha (amateur, volunteer) Symphony Orchestra:

• On YouTube:• http://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=_vTk0XsgZV4

Drive• Published 2009 by Dan Pink• “…a paradigm-shattering look at what truly

motivates us and how we can use that knowledge to work smarter and live better”

• Lessons learned for motivating CDWs??

• Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

• Click here to view DRIVE video on YouTube:• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Paired Share -- DiscussionThree-minute buzz – with the person next to you (in

groups of two or three) Ask your neighbor:

• What stood out for you in this video?

• How do you feel about this information?

• What might we do differently in light of his findings?

Three Basic Human Drives

• Biological: Hunger, thirst and copulation (Motivation 1.0)

• Extrinsic reward: Reward and punishment delivered by the environment for behaving in certain ways (Motivation 2.0)

• Intrinsic reward: The joy/satisfaction of completing a task motivates its completion. (Motivation 3.0)

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment; full effort is full victory.” -- Gandhi

Motivation 2.0 … not so useful for improving

performance• Motivation 2.0: Good for unrelenting, routine, mechanical, or boring tasks.

• Not as useful when creativity, maximization of performance, quality and commitment are desired.

• “Once the task called for even rudimentary cognitive skill, a larger reward led to poorer performance.”

• We’ll want to tap into intrinsic motivations … both for paid CDWs and unpaid volunteer CDWs.

Problems with Motivation 2.0

(Carrots and Sticks)• What are some of the problems

with using “carrot and stick” approaches to motivation?

a) They can extinguish intrinsic motivation.

b) They can diminish performance.

c) They can crush creativity.

Problems with Motivation 2.0

(Carrots and Sticks)d) They can crowd out good behavior.

e) They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior.

f) They can become addictive.

g) They can foster short-term thinking.

When Carrots are Sticks are Useful

• Motivation 2.0 (performance-based incentives) is useful for: Tasks that are inherently unpleasant (e.g.,

cleaning out latrines). Tasks that only require mechanical skills.

• We need to pay people a baseline wage (but not performance incentives, generally) when a volunteer cannot be expected to do the job.

• For CDWs, need to also provide basic training, supplies, consumables and supervision

Motivation 3.0Motivation 3.0 relies on:

• Giving people (e.g., CDWs) a certain level of Autonomy … of task (what they do), time (when they do it), team (who they do it with) and technique (how they do it).

• Helping people to achieve Mastery (getting better at something that matters to you)

• Helping people to discover Purpose in what they do.

Pareek’s Motivation Model

Motive DefinitionHelp the CDW to

have hopeful

feelings of:

Help the CDW to

avoid fear-invoking

feelings of:

Achievement Concern for excellence; setting of challenging goals Success Failure

Affiliation Concern for establishing and maintaining close, personal relationships

Inclusion / connected Exclusion

Extension Concern for others; urge to be relevant and useful to larger groups

Relevance / altruism Irrelevance

InfluenceConcern with making an impact on others; desire to change matters and develop others

Impact / Respect

Impotence / Disrespected

ControlConcern for orderliness; desire to be and stay informed; urge to monitor and take corrective action when needed

Order/ being informed

Chaos / out of the loop

Dependency / Growth

Desire for the help of others in one’s own self-development; Having an urge to maintain an “approval” relationship

Personal growth / attended

Loneliness/ neglect

Using Motivation 3.0 with CDWs

Volunteers can be counted on to do many things that CDWs do if:

• the work load is kept light (e.g., < 8 hours/week),

• basic skills are needed, and those skills can be imparted slowly; and

• there is a focus on intrinsic rewards such as giving volunteers more autonomy, providing pathways to skills/mastery in what they do, and helping them to discover the purpose associated with their work (e.g., measuring decreases in child deaths).

Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid. -- Albert Schweitzer

Time Contribution (in hours) of Volunteers and Other Project Staff

(FH/Mozambique CG Project) October 2005 – September 2010

Hours Dedicated to FH/Mozambique Care Group ProjectSofala Province, Mozambique (Oct '05 - Sept '10)

7,067, 0.2%61,659, 2%

401,824, 14%

2,453,726, 84%

VolunteersPromotersFH/Moz Local Manag.FH/US staff

Community driven …

84% of the work was done by Care Group Volunteers, and

98% by community members (CGVs + paid local CHWs).Total value of volunteer time (@$2.98/8hrs) = $904,811

Promoters (CHWs)

Do we need Motivation 3.0 for paid CDWs?

• Yes! … required if you want commitment, creativity, and ownership.

• Go beyond a wage. Help paid CDWs to:• Have some autonomy (task, time, team,

technique),• Achieve mastery, • Discover purpose in what they do, and• Have feelings of achievement, affiliation,

extension, influence, control, and growth

Small Group DiscussionDiscuss these questions at your tables and choose

someone who will report out. (15-20 minutes) • How could we motivate CDWs in our organizations,

for better retention and performance?• How would you decide whether a particular food

security task should be done by a volunteer or a paid worker?

• What would you, as FS implementers, need to be able to use Motivation 3.0 to help make our workers and volunteers more effective and satisfied?

Finding One’s PurposeThis is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations.

-- George Bernard Shaw

This presentation was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Food for the Hungry and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.