Unlock the intrinsic motivation of employees

State of mind

Mastery, noble purpose and autonomy

State of mind
Agility Maturity Cards > State of mind
Unlock the intrinsic motivation of employees

Description

This practice consists of applying the levers of self-interest close to vocation [Leonard 2013]. Intrinsic motivation, unlike extrinsic motivation, is based on [Pink 2010] :

  • sufficient remuneration to remove the question of money from the discussion (insufficient remuneration is a source of demotivation) and to decouple remuneration from actions accomplished, because beyond a certain threshold, financial incentives are no longer a source of motivation [SAFe 2021-8].
  • a rewarding and necessary learning process to achieve a certain level of mastery
  • a noble objective aimed at by the mission of each person and not a materialistic financial goal
  • maximum autonomy given and not orders to be carried out under the control of a manager


The agility mindset goes in this direction [Beck 2001] and SAFe includes it directly in its list of principles [SAFe 2021-8]. The conditions for this situation are in the hands of the managers who thus gain leadership.

This situation of 'knowledge workers' [Wikipedia 2019] implies a change of managerial attitude, as such personnel know much more about what is produced than the manager himself. To help management, approaches such as Management 3.0 [Appelo 2010] [Moustier 2019-1] are very useful to foster intrinsic motivation.

Application to test maturity

Testing is an intellectual challenge and not a repetitive task; the tester is thus pushed to constantly improve his or her skills, curiosity and thirst for learning [Moustier 2019-2]; he or she is also a knowledge worker.

This state of mind pushes him to multiply his investigations about the product, the job for which he is made, the tools that can help him improve his daily actions and his "critical thinking" [Bolton 2012] [Bach 2016].

To foster intrinsic motivation, the Ministry of Testing offers a series of challenges that allow for an increase in skills on different topics related to testing (see https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/series/30-days-of-testing). Each challenge lasts thirty days with one action of a few minutes to be completed each day.

At the end of the month, the tester has acquired a few reflexes that he or she can put to good use and this increase in competence in full autonomy leads him or her to the role of testing coach within the team [Moustier 2020].

Agilitest's position on this practice

Trying Agilitest is a step in itself because this tool is different from other test automation platforms, notably because of its #nocode approach [Forsyth 2021].

The automation of scripted tests facilitated by this type of tool helps him to free himself from the difficulty associated with automation, which is often a source of complexity. This liberation thus leaves him a freer field to advance a knowledge or a know-how which is dear to him.

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© Christophe Moustier - 2021