39. People Are Motivated By Autonomy

People actually like to be independent—to feel that they are doing things on their own, with minimal help from others. People like to do things the way they want to do them, and when they want to do them. People like autonomy. Rather than hire an expert, people often want to do things on their own.

How to Soften Your Role as Presenter

As the presenter, you have authority and control. It’s easy for some people to chafe at that authority and feel that they have lost autonomy. If they feel that way, they won’t be motivated to engage and participate in your presentation. You can help this situation by recognizing that people like to feel autonomous and building in ways for people to feel in control. These can be small, but they are significant. Here are some ideas:

• When you have an activity, give people a choice about the details. For example, in many of my presentations, I have participants work on a case study to apply the ideas we are talking about. Instead of assigning them a case study, I give them a few alternative case studies and they can pick which one to work on.

• Let people form their own teams. I often break the group into teams to work on an activity. I don’t assign people to teams. Instead I let them choose 2-3 people to form a team with.

• Let people work individually on some activities. I like to have group activities, but not everyone likes to work in a group. Balance group activities with individual activities.

• Let people choose which call to action they will take. At the end of every presentation, I give people a call to action. This is the action I want them to take. But instead of giving them one call to action, I give two or three different actions they can take and let them choose.