There are many articles and books about employee motivation. This paper provides pragmatic solutions to practical workplace problems that a reader encounters. We start with the current situation on the work floor.

In a previous paper[i], "Improvement of internal communication and KPIs," we explained the Prima method. We’ll use this method again, briefly describing it here.

We start by analyzing the causes and symptoms of suboptimal employee motivation. In the next step, we provide a pragmatic solution to improve this motivation. Finally, the action plans need to be put into practice.

Chronic Symptoms

Everyone senses when motivation is not functioning as desired, but it is difficult to begin addressing it. Even if a few individuals on the team do know, they are not supported by their team or department colleagues. The result: nothing changes. The situation becomes chronic. Some may complain, saying, “It’s always the same here.”

From Symptom to Remedy

Use this method to address employee motivation: Divide the group into small teams of four to five people each. Each participant is given a list of 20 possible causes of weak motivation of employees. A sample list of potential symptoms is outlined in Table 1.

Table 1: List of 20 possible symptoms of decreased motivation in the workplace

1	Appreciation Employees do not feel sufficiently appreciated for the work they do.
2	Gossiping Instead of working, employees spend their time gossiping.
3	Absenteeism Employees are frequently absent. There is high staff turnover.
4	Quality Employees are not interested in quality improvement.
5	Collaboration Cooperation with others is difficult.
6	Trust There is little mutual trust.
7	Agreements Employees do not adhere to the agreements made.
8	Bad will The employees refuse to commit themselves. They only think of their own interests.
9	Relationship with superiors Relationships with managers are difficult.
10	Honesty The employees do not feel they are treated fairly. Some colleagues are favored by management.
11	Objectives Goals and tasks are not always clear. Deadlines are not realistic.
12	Inconsistency Rules and procedures are not always applied and interpreted in the same way.
13	Bullying Some employees are bullied at work. Management does not address the situation.
14	Feedback Employees receive little or no feedback about their efforts and performance.
15	Management style Bosses are too directive. Employees receive little support. It's all about what we must do.
16	Workload Too much is expected of employees. The bar is set too high. Goals are no longer realistic.
17	Interest Management shows little interest in the employees, their work, and their results.
18	Involvement Employees do not feel involved. Their opinions or experiences are not sought.
19	Resources The resources are inadequate or not available.
20	Scapegoat When something goes wrong, the boss looks for a scapegoat.

Other symptoms may play a significant role in daily workplace life. You can add these to the list of 20 symptoms.

Note that each description can be interpreted and may lead to an in-depth conversation. This is the intent.

Experience and Methodology

Experience with hundreds of groups has shown that in 95% of cases, the above list of possible causes of poor motivation is sufficient.

To move from symptoms to effective remedies, we work through the following five steps:

1. Individual Step. Each person reads the list of possible symptoms from Table 1. They identify the three most important symptoms and provide three concrete examples for each symptom from the past month. This results in a minimum of nine concrete examples. (Duration: 20 minutes)
2. Team Activity. Divide the group into teams of 4 to 5 people. Each team member shares their examples with the other team members. Listen attentively. (Duration: 60 minutes)
3. Team Activity. The team reaches a consensus on the five main reasons for poor motivation. It is crucial to illustrate these five factors with concrete examples: at least five examples (per symptom) from the past month. (Duration: 20 minutes)
4. Individual Step. Within each team, participants brainstorm multiple possible solutions for each symptom, step by step. (Duration: 30 minutes)
5. Team Activity. Each team decides on specific improvement actions to be implemented in the coming weeks. The action plan should consist of three or more concrete actions that can be carried out within the next month. (Duration: 30 minutes)

Both the team members and the leaders must follow up on the implementation of the agreed-upon improvement actions.

Background Information

Why does this method work so effectively? The description of the 20 possible symptoms is written in a defensive thinking style, which participants quickly recognize. Starting from step 4, team members shift from a defensive to a constructive thinking style.

Because participants quickly recognize the situations described in Table 1, they can easily provide multiple examples for each symptom. When participants consciously adopt a constructive thinking style in steps 4 and 5, they are more likely to develop effective solutions.

Pitfalls

The most common pitfalls are:

• The team leader for participants in this exercise is absent.
• Describing symptoms in overly vague terms.
• Defining improvement actions that are too vague and not SMART[ii].
• Failing to reach consensus on decisions in step 5.
• Participants use defensive thinking styles instead of constructive thinking styles in steps 4 and 5.

This method will not be effective if any of these five pitfalls occur. Nothing will change, and the team will remain stuck in the same difficult situation.

It is not enough to know how to address a motivation problem if no concrete steps are subsequently taken to remove the obstacles. This pitfall is common in the West. This phenomenon is known as “The Knowing-Doing Gap.”[iii] There is sufficient knowledge available, but managers fail to put this knowledge into practice.

Intrinsic Motivation

According to Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci[iv], an employee’s intrinsic motivation depends on three parameters: Competence, Autonomy, and Relationships. Abbreviated: C.A.R. This car drives towards a specific goal. Let’s briefly explain all of this.

Competencies and skills

• When people perceive that they are capable and competent of performing their work, it motivates them to do the work.
• When people find their own solutions to achieve a goal, they are more motivated to implement these solutions.
• By actively using personal competencies, employees enhance their skills. This increases their intrinsic motivation and facilitates a better achievement of goals.

Autonomy

• When employees can exert influence over their work and are involved in a complete task, they feel more engaged in delivering good work.
• When people do things they find interesting, they are intrinsically motivated to engage with them.
• When people find that they can make their own choices and regulate their own behavior, the quality of their motivation to do the work increases. They then perform better and with more enjoyment.

Relational Aspects

• Employees appreciate it when their efforts and results are noticed and appreciated.
• When people experience that their manager is open to feedback, they are more motivated to bring forward improvement suggestions.
• Good collaboration and a positive team spirit help in achieving better results.
• Showing respect for each other’s ideas and work contributes to good understanding within the team.

Goals

• A small amount of progress toward something meaningful to employees is experienced as a positive internal work perception. This benefits their creativity and engagement with the work.
• When people understand what is expected of them, they are more motivated to do things to meet those expectations.
• When people receive a clear explanation of what they need to do, they are more motivated to actually do it. Both deadlines and targets are formulated realistically.

Role and impact of managers

Many managers are insufficiently aware of their role and impact on employee motivation. Clear exemplary behavior from managers creates an atmosphere of trust, integrity, and well-being among employees. Certain behaviors are inhibiting, while others stimulate employee well-being.

Table 2: Inhibiting and Stimulating Management Behaviors

	Inhibiting behaviors	Stimulating Behaviors
1	Authoritarian and coercive language use. Expressing threats. Inducing guilt	Providing space for and taking seriously the opinions and feelings of employees.
2	Misunderstanding the feelings of employees. Not considering the opinions and ideas of the employee.	Involving employees in the formulation of goals and methods.
3	Imposing goals.	Providing clear motivation for tasks and expectations regarding performance.
4	Use of punishments.	Giving freedom of choice in the execution of tasks.
5	Emphasis on deadlines or imposing unrealistic deadlines.	Increasing the decision-making authority of employees.
6	Stimulating internal competition, among other things, through individual targets and individual performance evaluations.	Encouraging collaboration and social interaction.
7	Working in isolation, independent of colleagues.	Providing positive feedback on the progress achieved.
8	Confronting employees with their mistakes. Criticizing employees. Making employees lose face.	Expressing appreciation for positive achievements. Considering the ideas contributed by employees.
9	The leader (consciously or unconsciously) allows themselves to be guided by self-interest.	Group interest takes priority.
10	Avoiding difficult decisions.	Daring to make difficult decisions in consultation with the employees
11	Being guided by mistrust.	Creates trust within the group.
12	The leader is primarily focused on his own ideas and preferences.	Open communication. Listens attentively to the ideas and preferences of employees.
13	Little or no attention to developing the skills of the employee	Much attention to stimulating and developing the skills of the employee.

Which characteristics from the first column of Table 2 apply to you? Which characteristics from the second column do you already apply today? Which ones have you not applied yet? What did you learn from this exercise? Develop a concrete action plan. After two months of implementing this improvement plan, ask your employees if they notice a difference in your leadership qualities (comparison of the situation two months ago and today). Does their feedback align with what you have experienced yourself? Create a new improvement plan if there is still a significant difference between your perception and that of your employees.

The characteristics described in the first column of Table 2 will be recognized as defensive thinking styles, while the second column describes constructive thinking styles. Defensive thinking styles lead to statements as described in Table 1.

When leaders change their leadership style to a constructive one, solutions are found for the problems described in Table 1. From experience, I know that changing leadership style is usually the bottleneck in the change process.

Conclusion

The proposed method allows for a pragmatic and structured approach to tackling and resolving persistent issues such as employee motivation on the shop floor. Put it into practice and … implement all of this within the week. Only when you do something that yields the desired results will you improve employee motivation. Knowing how to do it is not enough. It is crucial to develop and execute an improvement plan. The results achieved, when perceived as positive, will lead to change.