According to psychologists Coon & Mitterer (2010), “Intrinsic motivation occurs when we act without any obvious external rewards. We simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potentials.” This is different from extrinsic motivation, which encourages us to act for external rewards, for e.g: good grades, more salary and bonus, bonus miles from long work trips, etc.

Each of us is influenced by, and act from, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. While it is easy to objectify extrinsic motivation and thus provide rewards based on the same, identifying subtler intrinsic motivation cues proves to be more elusive. And yet, identifying intrinsic motivation is necessary, because when harnessed correctly, it can be a powerful aid to the cognitive process.

In this post, we will identify the 4 different types of intrinsic motivation, and how to use these to engage more learners in training.

1. Intrinsic Motivation Factor: Relatedness

  • Type of Learner: Socializer
  • How the Socializer can feel a sense of Relatedness with Training: The Socializer is intrinsically motivated by social connection and belonging. This is the type of user who would love to play online and in-person games, belong to a social community of learners, and perhaps be seen as a leader of such a community.

2. Intrinsic Motivation Factor: Autonomy

  • Type of Learner: Free Spirit
  • How the Free Spirit can feel a sense of Autonomy with Training: The Free Spirit is intrinsically motivated by creativity, choice, and responsibility. In order to keep the Free Spirit engaged in training, exploratory learning paths, decision making scenarios, and ethics based what-if questions and scenarios can be used.

3. Intrinsic Motivation Factor: Mastery

  • Type of Learner: Achiever
  • How the Achiever can feel a sense of Mastery with Training: The Achiever is intrinsically motivated by a clear goal and progress that can be measured. This type of Learner is happy with training that provides a clear path to achieving one or  a few learning objectives through a linear sequence of well-structured tasks. They also like proof of their achievement- a well designed certificate that can be printed out (or even better, is professionally designed and sent to them via post) and honors that build upon each other (e.g: Novice> Teacher> Master). They are engaged in training right from the start if they find that the training will truly help them achieve more, and better, on their day to day tasks.

4. Intrinsic Motivation Factor: Purpose

  • Type of Learner: Philanthropist
  • How the Philanthropist can feel a sense of Purpose/ Philanthropy with Training: The Philanthropist is intrinsically motivated by meaning, effect, and the greater common good. They need to understand not just how the training will help them in the long-term, but how it will help their entire team or function. For e.g: how will the training reduce duplicate work among functions? How will it improve communication? How will it help teams improve efficiency and reduce costs over the next 2 years? 

Bringing it all together:

People are intrinsically motivated by 4 different motivation factors: relatedness, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. How can we build in features that engage these 4 factors into one learning program, or even into one single e-learning course? It might be challenging, or even unnecessary in some cases, but perhaps an example would look like this:

  • The e-learning course has a flexible seat time: the mandatory version is just 15 minutes long, but those who so wish can review optional role-based/ activity-based, exploratory learning paths that total up to 20 additional minutes.
  • For every exploratory learning path that is reviewed, the Learner is awarded points on a communal leaderboard that is updated daily and is publicly shared.
  • For every exploratory learning path that is successfully completed, the Learner is awarded badges with honorary titles. Information about this honors list are also shared publicly.
  • Learners who complete all exploratory paths are considered ‘Champions’. They are provided certification and other merch, and are invited to deliver Champion level Q&A sessions, etc, to other Learners. Perhaps they get to sit down with the Function Head for an ideation session.
  • The exploratory learning paths, through decision trees, simulate real life tasks and challenges. Learners go through a rigorous decision making process based on real scenarios and data. At the end of each path, they have solved one actual workplace challenge that their team, or even function, currently experiences.

A few simple, well-established, training strategies that, working together, enrich the engagement level of the Learner.