Meaningful Motivation Principle 5: Motivation that creates ownership

Meaningful Motivation comes from believing that we are in the driver’s seat of both our journey and our successes. However, one of the biggest mistakes companies make when developing motivational support systems is putting themselves in the role of savior. This is usually driven by an underlying belief that their product or experience will have more value by doing everything for the customer. I’ve sat in on some of these conversations with companies and they usually sound something like, “Our customer is struggling. If we help them, they’ll value our services enough to pay us.” There’s some truth to the thinking, but unfortunately, it is an unsustainable business model. Self-efficacy research shows us that, while saviorism may work as a short-term strategy, it actually increases likelihood of early lapsing since it lowers change resilience and active engagement in the change process. In this article, we outline the principles for a more sustainable and intrinsically motivating approach.