11 Ways to Motivate Geeks

Every leader wants a motivated group, but many find that motivating
technology workers is quite different from motivating other employees.
Here are a few tips from a book "Leading Geeks: How to Manage and
Lead People Who Deliver Technology"

1. Select Wisely. The most important thing a leader can do to
encourage intrinsic motivation is to assign work to geeks who have an
interest in the work.

2. Manage Meaning. The second most important thing a leader can do is
to give a geek some sense of the larger significance of their work.
Without a sense of meaning, motivation suffers and day-to-day
decisions become difficult. It is easy for geeks to become mired in
the ambiguous world of questions, assumptions, and provisional facts
characteristic of technical work.

3. Communicate Significance. It is very important for managers to be
explicit about the role a new technology plays in a business otherwise
some will misunderstand the centrality of their work and others may
develop delusions of grandeur.

4. Show Career Path. Many geeks have only a vague sense that there's
more to advancing their careers than just acquiring new technical
knowledge. Be specific about what competencies a geek must demonstrate
in order to advance their career.

5. Projectize. Projects help turn work into a game and geeks love
games with objectives that delineate both goals and success criteria.

6. Encourage Isolation. While geeks need free flowing communication
within their own work groups, collective seclusion provides fertile
soil for motivation, cultivating cohesion and concentration.

7. Engender External Competition. Healthy competition can enhance
group cohesion.

8. Design Interdependence. When a colleague is relying on you to
complete your work, it's much easier to put in the extra effort for
them than it is just to meet some externally imposed deadline.

9. Limit Group Size. As group size grows, colleagues become less
individuals and more an undistinguished mass of anonymous faces. The
larger the workgroup, the less conducive the environment for
developing intrinsic motivation.

10. Control Resource Availability. Whether thinking about money,
people, time, or training, there's a delicate balance of resources
that will encourage a group's enthusiasm. Too many resources or too
few can diminish interest in the work.

11. Offer Free Food. . .Intermittently. Never underestimate the power
of free food. I can't offer any rational explanation, but for geeks,
even those making sizeable incomes, free food offers major support to
motivation development, far more than an equivalent amount of cash