Motivation is too often seen as a booster effect which, like a burst of energy, will develop a very high level of energy over a short period of time.
This is what I called dopamine motivation in the chapter on emotions. This type of motivation is created by very dynamic, high-energy activities, which strongly stimulate the reward circuit. Dopamine motivation, as I call it, is very effective when starting a project or launching an important stage in a more global change. But this motivation is artificial. While it has the advantage of raising desire and enthusiasm very quickly and often quite high, the return to everyday reality is often just as violent and demotivating. A bit like the day after a night out, when a headache and a hangover remind us that now we have to take action.
Over time, the repeated use of this dopamine motivation creates a form of dependency, as if this energy overload were becoming the norm. Exhausting and addictive, we then need to do more and more, to maintain the reward circuit at its optimal pleasure level.
This is what we see with corporate parties and events, which serve to punctuate a company's results. The more you take part in them, the more they become a norm that loses its effectiveness on work motivation, becoming no more than a given, like a car or a cell phone. From being a source of involvement, this type of event quickly becomes a mere source of satisfaction, and if need be, dissatisfaction.
Faced with this, it's important to work on what I call serotonin motivation. This motivation is directly linked to interpersonal relations, collaboration and team spirit and cohesion. This motivation will seek to increase the quality of exchanges, trust and loyalty between team members, and over time, the quality of team relations with the group and with the organization as a whole.
This type of motivation is built up over time, by ensuring moments of sharing, correspondence and self-knowledge. It can be found, for example, in "retrospectives", the meetings that follow each stage of a project and serve to put everyone's feelings on the table. Like REx (Retour d'Expérience) at the end of a long project, which brings together all the protagonists and stakeholders to discuss successes and areas for improvement.
This type of motivation can also be found in professional challenges, which are also given to teams.
The sources of serotonin motivation are to be found in day-to-day work, in habits and routines. Over time, they define rituals that are specific to each team, building a state of mind, an identity, a raison d'être. Like situational leadership, you need to start with defined, organized meetings, so that, over time, they become self-organizing.
Serotonin motivation does not replace dopamine motivation, nor does it replace cortisol motivation. These three types of motivation coexist within the company. All three have their uses, and each responds to specific contexts. It's just a question of knowing how to use them intelligently and sparingly. Too much cortisol leads to confrontation. Too much dopamine leads to dissatisfaction. Too much serotonin leads to boredom.
These types of motivation need to be considered over time. It's by mixing them that we build long-term mobilization.