The following activity has been provided by Shay McConnon (An Even Better Place to Work) and is one of a series of safe, short and fun activities on a number of key engagement themes such as giving feedback, managing differences, ownership, openess, motivation and feeling valued. It is ideal for when time is limited and you are looking for a quick activity to improve engagement levels and can be used as part of a team meeting, lunch ‘n’ learn sessions etc or combined with other activities for a longer session.
This particular activity can be used to identify personal motivators.
ACTIVITY: THE PERFECT JOB
Objective: To help people understand their motivational drivers and explore ways these can be met even more fully in the team. This particular activity focuses on identifying personal motivators.
Group Size: Groups of 3-4
Time: 20+ minutes
Materials: Pack of Motivation Cards for each group and a Motivation@Work sheet.
Instructions:
Phase 1
- Form groups of 3-4 and give each group a pack of Motivation Card.
- These cards are spread face up on the table.
- Spin a pen to select someone to start.
- This person thinks of the perfect job for him/her but does not tell the team what this job is.
- The job may or may not be related to their current role or company e.g. a TV producer, professional tennis player, etc.
- S/he selects 6 cards that have something to do with their perfect job.
- Blank cards can be used to represent aspects of the job not covered by these cards.
- Rank order these 6 cards.
- The others have to guess what this perfect job would be from these 6 cards.
- The selected person only reveals their perfect job after everyone has had a discussion and made a guess at the answer.
Phase 2
- The selected person now goes through each card in turn indication whether that motivational driver is present in his/her current job.
- The selected person moves the card to the right to indicate a gap i.e. when the need is not being met in the current job – a little to the right to indicate a small gap and a lot to the right to show a bigger gap.
- The others now explore with the selected person how s/he could be even more motivated i.e. problem solve on how to reduce the size of the gap.
- Give the selected person the Motivation@Work sheet for completion.
- Repeat this activity with the others in the group.
Phase 3
- Convene the team and discuss
- How useful has that activity been?
- Would it be helpful to share completed Motivation@Work sheets with the team leader?
- What can we do to keep motivational levels high in the team?
- Are there any team or personal goals we want to agree?
- Record any team or personal goals agreed
