Is it necessary for participants in training to be intrinsically motivated?

Is it necessary for participants in training to be intrinsically motivated? Necessary? No. Important? Yes. Why? Here are a few reasons:

• If the participants are intrinsically motivated to learn, then learning is more likely to take place. If they are not intrinsically motivated then they will often just go through the motions, do what they have to do to get through the session, then move on. 
• Extrinsic motivation tends to be short lived, while intrinsic motivation is part of the Infinite Game Mindset and critical to the commitment to small, incremental and continuous improvement. 
• We are more likely to train on our own when we are intrinsically motivated. 
• We are more likely to attend optional training when we are intrinsically motivated.

As a trainer you do not control learning. You cannot make people learn. You control the learning / training environment. The participants control learning. The key for you as a trainer then is to create a training environment that is most conducive to learning and part of that is creating an environment that helps foster and support intrinsic motivation. 

In the mid 1980’s Edward Deci and Richard Ryan wrote a book titled Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior and introduced the concept of Self Determination Theory (SDT). The three core elements of SDT are: 

• Autonomy 
• Competence 
• Relatedness

Let me be clear that I am not an expert in Self Determination Theory, or any other topic. I am a man with a deep sense of curiosity and limited formal education, who has a broad understanding of several topics with a deeper understanding of a few of those topics. However, even if all we know about SDT are those three elements, I am sure we can begin to see the application for training and leading.

Autonomy is about the learner’s behavior being self-directed and may be the element that trainers struggle most to apply in training. Autonomy does not mean that you completely turn the reins of every training session over to the participants. What you could do, however, is build in time at the end of training sessions where the participants get into small groups and are allowed to work on whatever they feel they need some extra practice on. They can develop their own drills, with some guidance, if necessary, from the instructor. As a frontline supervisor you could let the members of your team develop short (10 minute) trainings on a work-related topic that is of interest to them, or a topic they feel they and their teammates could use some extra training in, or a refresher in, and have them deliver that at the start of shift to their peers. It could also involve polling your personnel before they come to in-service training on what topic or topics they would like to see covered and then finding a way to build those topics into the training. You could also involve members of specialty units in the development of in-service training so it addresses topics that are relevant, applicable, and related to the tasks they perform. If fitness training is effectively implemented during an academy, then the recruits will learn how to design their own workouts. You could then give the recruits the autonomy to develop and execute some of their own workout sessions. 

Competence is about continually getting better at something that matters. All the strategies listed in the previous paragraph directly link to developing the competence of the participants. That competence will lead to confidence. A critical element of competence in training is to help the participants understand that learning is often an ugly process, which occurs over time, and involves struggle. The learners need to understand that you are interested in their understanding, learning, retention, and transfer of what is being taught to the real-world environments they will have to function in so they can perform at their best when it matters most. As a result, you are not focused on them looking good during the training sessions. The friction and struggle that come with learning can have a motivational cost, so it is important to educate the participants up front about these realities and remind them throughout about the training to embrace the struggle and trust the process. Part of the art of being an effective trainer is to know when and how to scale the challenge and complexity of training both up, and as importantly when to scale it down. 

Relatedness is about belonging. I encourage every trainer and leader to read the book Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness by Owen Eastwood. Belonging is one of the key social drivers for humans and is intricately linked to performance. From a training perspective we could also look at Relatedness as being how the learner perceives the training as being related to the demands of the profession. This is about building context / specificity / representativeness into your training design so the training looks, acts, sounds, and feels like at least a slice of what they will encounter in the field. 

If you are willing to buy in to my premise that the goal of training, and trainers, is to help the men and women we train to become dextrous, adaptive, and resilient problem solvers, then an important piece of that puzzle is fostering a learning environment that encourages a sense of autonomy, competence and relatedness. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

Winning Mind Training –  Providing practical training to law enforcement professionals in the areas of instructor development, Performance Enhancement Imagery, leadership and mindset.  

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