Maslow's pyramid of need as expressed in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality is quite popular, although it has been challenged over the years for its validity across cultures and gender.
Nevertheless, there is something intuitively appealing about the framework, even aspirational that one reverts to it as a way of thinking about what drives us.
While this pyramid is used in management training, I thought it would be fun to more directly write it out in a work place setting. An early career question we ask ourselves is do we work to play or do we play to work.
Maybe the answer is both!
In this pyramid which I would like to christen Maslow@Work, there are also 5 layers like the original.
At the base of the pyramid is employment. For one to survive and for basic society to function, this can be essentially accepted as the core need. As the politician is wont to promise .... jobs, jobs, jobs!
Beyond performing the exact task assigned, let us say stamping out parts from a stamping machine, is there something that one at work can add? Something creative - perhaps improving a process, better functionality of the product being sold and so on. In the age of automation, it feels like one cannot survive even in the short term by not adding value at work.
We are social beings and indeed the single biggest driver of our increasing longevity is socialization. Rather, loneliness and isolation is a driver of early death. Thus, if one feels like they belong to a culture that they can identify with, that feeds into the hierarchy of needs.
A pat on the back here, a bonus for performance there - nothing it seems drives behavior like a properly designed incentive scheme. Worker of the week, team of the year, corporate champion and so on.
One gets up in the morning - can't wait to get the work started. What is that motivation? Is it the company mission? Is it that last leap for the additional payment in the paycheck? Is it that extra hour that earns a trophy (J.D. Power recognition for example)?
Or is it one building upon all the layers below, through a career of learning, through different stages, through different roles, different geographies, different companies finding what make one tick and marrying that insight with the work that is performed.
When I trial ran this concept by my friends, they cheekily suggested that the highest layer of the pyramid if applied directly at work might as well be - become redundant! I suppose we can be more gentle and call it retirement!!
But sticking to the original thought, Maslow terms the highest layer self-actualization. The manifestation of self-actualization that Abraham Maslow describes in psychological terms, applied directly to work might be - achieve purpose.
It is going to be rare to have the insight on day one as a young adult starting a career. But through trials, learning, adaptation and experience, a few of us might be luck to get to that final rung.
Of course, if you buy the concept of Maslow@Work!
Nevertheless, there is something intuitively appealing about the framework, even aspirational that one reverts to it as a way of thinking about what drives us.
While this pyramid is used in management training, I thought it would be fun to more directly write it out in a work place setting. An early career question we ask ourselves is do we work to play or do we play to work.
Maybe the answer is both!
In this pyramid which I would like to christen Maslow@Work, there are also 5 layers like the original.
At the base of the pyramid is employment. For one to survive and for basic society to function, this can be essentially accepted as the core need. As the politician is wont to promise .... jobs, jobs, jobs!
Beyond performing the exact task assigned, let us say stamping out parts from a stamping machine, is there something that one at work can add? Something creative - perhaps improving a process, better functionality of the product being sold and so on. In the age of automation, it feels like one cannot survive even in the short term by not adding value at work.
We are social beings and indeed the single biggest driver of our increasing longevity is socialization. Rather, loneliness and isolation is a driver of early death. Thus, if one feels like they belong to a culture that they can identify with, that feeds into the hierarchy of needs.
A pat on the back here, a bonus for performance there - nothing it seems drives behavior like a properly designed incentive scheme. Worker of the week, team of the year, corporate champion and so on.
One gets up in the morning - can't wait to get the work started. What is that motivation? Is it the company mission? Is it that last leap for the additional payment in the paycheck? Is it that extra hour that earns a trophy (J.D. Power recognition for example)?
Or is it one building upon all the layers below, through a career of learning, through different stages, through different roles, different geographies, different companies finding what make one tick and marrying that insight with the work that is performed.
When I trial ran this concept by my friends, they cheekily suggested that the highest layer of the pyramid if applied directly at work might as well be - become redundant! I suppose we can be more gentle and call it retirement!!
But sticking to the original thought, Maslow terms the highest layer self-actualization. The manifestation of self-actualization that Abraham Maslow describes in psychological terms, applied directly to work might be - achieve purpose.
It is going to be rare to have the insight on day one as a young adult starting a career. But through trials, learning, adaptation and experience, a few of us might be luck to get to that final rung.
Of course, if you buy the concept of Maslow@Work!
4 comments:
I just read Tara Westover’s “Educated” which has unfortunately been paired with JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” as a political story about the rural-urban cultural divide. It is a story about self-actualization in an family that was hostile to her choice to pursue knowledge and to use that knowledge to better understand herself. The struggle is against home, the status quo, and the views of her most important community: Her family and the close knit group of religious fanatics (not a word I choose idly). Creating a political and social system where individuals are given the freedom to decide who they are is the big idea of the enlightenment. It is an idea that has simultaneously lifted billions out of the existential misery of a life of poverty and a rich reservoir of artistic creativity. Any force that attempts to stifle people from the search for their authentic selves whether the force is a dictator, a religion, or a parent is a threat to great progress humanity has made in the past 50 years.
Profound!
This is indeed a nice article. On a slightly contemplative mood, one wonders what is there above the apex of this pyramid ? Because, the apex of this pyramid stops at the point of achieving success. All that means not very much after one leaves work and looking towards the end. One wonders , notwithstanding a certain amount of gratification about the achievements, what all this so called success amounts to unless one is an Einstein.
Great article SPK. One quick clarification on my comment about "becoming redundant". Actually, it was not about retirement. I think becoming redundant is an indication that you have not hoarded knowledge and have actually made it possible for your "work" to be continued. Maybe it is by "giving" to others (mentoring and coaching) and/or by eliminating / redesigning tasks. That is how we become redundant. In some ways, I am also addressing Prof's contemplation! It's not about us - it is also about those who come after us.
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