THE CREATING A MOTIVATING work ENVIRONMENT SUMMIT

PUTTING MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS INTO PRACTICE!

THE TL;DR OVERVIEW

Too often, motivation is treated superficially. Instead, what’s needed is a concise understanding and lots of practical applications. Self-Determination Theory, the most respected model of motivation, emphasizes three elements: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. That’s what this summit is about: building a sustainable and intrinsically motivating environment for your organization. Leaders, managers, coaches, and others will explore how to align organizational goals with individual psychological needs through practical tools and real-world applications.  Highlights include:

• A keynote by NBA champion Ronny Turiaf on SDT and athletic performance

• A clear presentation on SDT with Richard Ryan, one of the co-developers of the framework

• Hands-on workshopping of SDT applications in management, performance reviews, hybrid work, DEI, and pay-for-performance systems

• Daily special events (panels, debates, explorations) during the live sessions, Nov 2–6

THE DETAILED OVERVIEW

Managers, leaders, sales professionals, marketers, coaches, and others are quite aware of the importance motivation can play on performance, team satisfaction, and the overall well-being of those in work enviornments. Heck, not only are these folks aware, they are often held accountable for “motivating” people to do whatever it is they must deliver.

Of course, motivation is much more difficult to manage. In fact, motivation itself is a more complex idea than just getting people to act.

First, there are different types of motivation. And managers, leaders, coaches, et. al. can uniquely affect those different motivations. A manager might decide to inspire the team with a competition… but does it yield the outcomes she expected? Or, a leader may inspire a team to act— but it isn’t because of a shared purpose, but rather fear. Alternatively, a coach might engage a client in a way that facilitates a passion for the work one does while aligning to the organizational objectives.

The trick is to know what can be done, the implications that might occur based on those actions, and to then be intentional about what to do. That’s what this summit is all about.

1. How can we foster more intrinsically motivating (passion-based) environments that enable sustainable and passionate engagement.

2. How can we avoid those behaviors that do motivate, but in a way that undermines long-term and sustainable productivity— that undermines and frustrates teams.

3. And how do we do put these systems and structures in place within the various contexts we work.

Ultimately, it is about aligning the needs of the organization with the needs of the individuals— more specifically, those psychological needs that are the foundation of this entire summit!

COMPETENCE, AUTONOMY, & RELATEDNESS!

This summit leverages the science and research of a 50+ year theory of motivation that has over 8000 peer-reviewed studies and articles validating its merits and use. Self-Determination Theory. In fact, the Summit is delivered in partnership with the Center for Self-Determination Theory.

The focus is on practice. What tools, techniques, behaviors, and experiences can we leverage to create and foster those intrinsically motivating environments? To do so, we will cover several topics:

1. A CASE STUDY FROM THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION (NBA). A keynote presentation and discussion delivered by former NBA Champion, Ronny Turiaf. Ronny, a recent Executive MBA Graduate studying how SDT explains the successes and failures he experienced as a professional athlete, shares his story, his SDT best practices, and motivational challenges.

2. AN INTRODUCTION TO SDT… IN PRACTICE. How do practitioners— those managers, leaders, coaches, and other professionals use SDT day-to-day? How do we support the satisfaction of those above-mentioned psychological needs? How do we provide the structure to support team members’ sense of competence, autonomy support to foster (obviously) autonomy, and involvement to support relatedness?

3. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT. How can managers and leaders ensure the work gets done, but in a way that supports the well-being, productivity, and development of team members? How do those managers and leaders measure and evaluate performance in a way that is supportive and not punitive, developmental, and not frustrating?

4. PROBLEMS-BASED LEADERSHIP. As we all know, it is all about the context. Based on the types of problems practitioners face, how do they adjust, modify, and develop their SDT interventions to solve the problem and support the teams?

5. PAY FOR PERFORMANCE. It’s here. It’s here to stay. How can we use an SDT filter to ensure it works?

6. DEI. It’s taking a beating these days, but it shouldn’t. And more to the point, when done properly, it is both supported, often defined, and mediated by principles within SDT. So, how can we make DEI effective and substantive?

7. HYBRID WORK. Whether we like it or not, hybrid work is here to stay. How can we use SDT to construct a hybrid work environment that meets BOTH team member and managerial expectations?

8. PRODUCTIVITY. The popular view is that productivity is all firms care about. And that is certainly true for some. But can we have the cake and eat it, too? We would argue the answer is an assertive YES. So how?

9. STRATEGIES. What are specific strategies managers, leaders, coaches, and others can use to put SDT into practical practice in different professional contexts?

10. SPECIAL STUFF! We will also have a special event each day of the live sessions (November 2-6)…. A panel discussion, a debate, a discovery/ exploration session, a storytelling & improv session, and more. Special sessions are only offered once and last 60 minutes.