Hey Reader,

This week we wrapped up the Agile Tour Montreal 2023 and while some alumni and some members of the Agile Circle got online tickets, workshops were not part of the online deal.

And I stayed mostly on workshops this year!

So, I wanted to share with you a standout experience: the workshop hosted by Mija Rabemananjara and Josiane Levesque "The Natural Laws of Human Potential Development Do Exist. They delved into applying Montessori principles in a workplace setting – a unique perspective.

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[Pic of My Awesome Workshop Table]

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Among the various Montessori principles, we explored one. Intrinsic motivation, a force that propels action without external stimuli. No reminders or rewards necessary; the task itself becomes fulfilling.

In a Montessori classroom, kids aren't given gold stars for every little thing. Instead, they're encouraged in their efforts and support is offered when they face challenges. How cool is that?

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Teams in the workplace, however, find themselves reacting to external pressures more often than they would like. They are told where and how “to improve”. So the interesting challenge for you as a coach becomes, how can you boost intrinsic motivation on things that might not seem like what they’d want to do?

The thing is that intrinsic motivation has its roots in cultivating self-awareness and fostering connections with the world around you.

Note that while intrinsic motivation can’t be injected (it’s internal as the name says), you can actually boost it by:

• Amplifying what exists; and
• Removing obstacles.

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So a great way to amplify the existing intrinsic motivation is to create awareness:

• What do your teams members like to do, collectively and individually? What energizes them?
• What are they strong at? Where do they want to be by the end of the quarter?
• What already works?

Similar awareness questions can be asked to remove barriers to intrinsic motivation:

• What needs to be different so that you can do/achieve what you need and want?
• Who can help? How can they help?
• What do you need more of? Less of?

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To illustrate the simplicity of it in action, at my table we went with the topic of documentation: nobody likes it or does it “properly” in the software space. So the exploration was “how can it be seen as truly useful”?, “how can it be rewarding?”, “how can it be easy?”

The group came up with ideas ranging from using AI to generate the best quality of documents, to Wikipedia style of documentation, with several contributors adding what they know best; to several tools reading from a single source and then diagrams and text could be extracted… so users read what they enjoy. And users could even vote and give reviews, increasing the usefulness of documents and the sense of pride in its creators.

Documentation suddenly became easy, gamified, useful. There were developers at the table, by the way, which illustrates how the whole thing can benefit the "usual detractors" of a task if the challenge matches their intrinsic motivation.

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If anything, Reader, I hope you then leave with this insight:

We can help people create the space in which they know they can perform at their very best.

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But before you test it on your teams, how about testing it on yourself, as the great role model you are?

Think about an issue. Any issue, either a problem or an improvement.

• What do you want to see happening?
• What energizes you about it?
• What can make this even more worthwhile for you?
• What, if anything do you need to remove to make it work?
• What if anything do you need help with so things can move forward?

Happy experimentation!

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From the Blog

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Whether they came from your exercise on intrinsic motivation or from somewhere else, ideas and insights for improvement should always be prioritized. I know you know that. But recently I wrote and talked about a simple yet powerful way to make sure items of any nature get properly sorted out.

What if this prioritization could always be simple?

Start with simple methods such as a 2x2 matrix. Fancy stuff works, of course, but the challenge (and the beauty) is to use simple tools and maximize the conversations. Read (or watch) more here.

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On the note of conversations, coaching being a special type of conversation, it works a bit differently for individuals and for teams. Do you know what to pay attention to when coaching teams?

You can read more here.

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I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Cheers,

P

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