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Summary: When work is connected to an altruistic purpose, people may be become highly motivated.
There's a very interesting article on the Harvard Business Review site (one of many) that describes a beneficial relationship between the happiest people and the most difficult challenges. (This notion is hard to resist, and it may be entirely accurate.) Reforming inner city schools, ending homelessness making drinking water safe - these daunting problems are presented as some of the huge challenges that the most engaged people are trying to address.
The article is by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In it she says, 'In research for my book Evolve!, I identified three primary sources of motivation in high-innovation companies: mastery, membership, and meaning. Another M, money, turned out to be a distant fourth. Money acted as a scorecard, but it did not get people up-and-at 'em for the daily work, nor did it help people go home every day with a feeling of fulfillment. '
Of course, the point she is making about money not being the top motivator for the most engaged workers is well made. There's another word that may apply in relation to the happiest workers - purpose. So is it the most difficult challenges or societal problems that are connected to the happiest people, or is it more that they identified a purpose they focus upon?
Recently we heard about Adam Grant's research at the Wharton School of Business into prosocial behavior - essentially helping other people without having to be rewarded - and how it is potentially a very large source of untapped motivation.
Helping people can take many forms, such as the examples of ending homelessness and reforming troubled schools. However, the underlying intention is simply helping others, and this altruistic activity could be defined as purpose. In the context of helping, purpose is generally described as being an activity and intention to do good in the world - including doing good works on a larger scale. (For example, some non-profits are trying to raise awareness about the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change.)
In his book Drive Daniel Pink wrote that purpose is the third aspect of our most productive motivation - the other two being autonomy and mastery. 'Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more.' (Page 131)
