The third factor provides a context for the other two - Purpose.
People want to create something that betters the world and outlasts our lives. The most deeply motivated people, the most productive and satisfied, have a sense of purpose. The profit motive isn't enough.
There are three aspects to purpose.
1. Goals - in studies, for all age groups money is not the most important form of compensation. People want to work for organizations with goals to pursue a purpose and use profit as a catalyst rather than an objective.
2. Words - objectives should be in terms that reflect human needs. One way to gauge the connectedness worker feel is just to listen. Do they use "we" or "they" when referring to the company.
3. Policies - are how the goals are implemented. If the good becomes just one more thing to check off, intrinsic motivation turns into extrinsic motivation. One example given was if a company wants to have a policy of giving, the employees should determine the charity. The first thing that came to mind here was the United Way campaigns that seem to hold employees hostage to giving in almost every business including mine. While you can now chose which organization the United Way supports for your contribution, there is a sense of mandatory giving that irritates me. One more thing to check off. The money then magically disappears from your paycheck so you have no further connection with any good you are doing.
Part of our performance appraisal is now based on behaviors, things that might be intrinsic motivators for some have just been reduced to things that need to be checked off.
How important are "purpose goals" the intrinsic goals to improve lives, to learn and grow? It has been shown that those with extrinsic "profit goals" or money or fame don't become happier when their goals are reached but often suffer from anxiety or depression. They have what they want, may find then they need more and still don't have what they need. People with purpose goals who feel they are attaining them have high levels of satisfaction and well being.
So working as a public servant should have all this intrinsic motivation and purpose built in, but it doesn't. We are still a business and it seems many of our new ideas, procedures and so on come from business models. In skimming over many blog posts over the past several years, it seems I have been searching for a purpose and struggling with the actual work aspects of work for a long time. I've been trying to find that connection that may have been there once but isn't there now. I have been told often that I have high expectations, possibly too high relating to just about everything. I've been told I'm smart and see things others don't. I may be setting myself up for being let down often. How do I let all that go?
I recently read another book about intuitive children and one of the things this type of child needs is a sense of purpose, a connection to something bigger, sometimes something spiritual. More and more I see this is something I need and have been struggling to find. I do try to find it in my choice of work, but for some reason always end up feeling lost and let down. I could have been sabotaging myself because work is so structured to be externally motivating, or to the externally motivated, that I become disillusioned the by the very purpose that brought me to the work.
The next step may be to find more ways and to work harder at bringing that purpose back to what I do every day. It's hard. I've tried that off and on. But now I do see more clearly how it all works.
Or, of course, try again to find it someplace else.