Noth­ing

"Nothing," he responded without moving a muscle. It seemed like he meant what he said. We starred stunned at him. You could almost cut our tension with a knife.

The question sounded like: "what is my motivation in participating in this project day by day?" The answers came one after the other, one of us was motivated by the teamwork, another one liked the topic, some liked the client, and someone emphasized the money.

Suddenly we heard his voice, and he said only one word, which made me feel dizzy: 

- Nothing.

We are sitting here to create our common motivation space, and then he comes and just drops nothing. It is a team that has proven a lot. Where the members understand each other even from broken words. Where the code sweeps into the repo like beautiful artwork, and the next day ends in the bin after a corporate review. In a company that is known for not bargaining away developers. Where there is no confidentiality-statement, neither sold hours.

- Nothing?

WTF? How do you mean nothing? Do you know how many rounds we had to run to win this project? How much we sweated to convert a standard contract into an agile one? Do you remember how much I care each day about making the team feeling competent and motivated, including you as well? How come nothing??

- Nothing motivates me in this project.

I started to panic. This guy is a tremendous value, and I did not realize that he doesn't feel well. He could have said a lukewarm half-ready sentence, to fade into the environment. But for any reason, he didn't want to get away with it. He could have passed the question. But he didn't, he said what he meant without beating about the bush. My pulse raised. I took a deep breath and gave up to convince him about anything. Instead of solving the problem, I tried to attend and connect.

Objective session

At the beginning of each project, we draw together the motivation map. We name those persons who are interested in the success of the project, including the client and the executing team. We discuss what may motivate the different persons and how they will be satisfied with the project. It used to be a smooth round resulting in a clear picture. 

After that comes a more personal part: why do I offer many hours to get this work done? We all write on the board what we would ask from the other team members to receive our needs, and we also make an offer on how we can contribute to the project personally.

As the last step, we all take a color and mark those statements on the board that we can join. This way, the team's emphasis turns visible. 

Gergő has a routine in how substantial questions can be served rapidly, and all kind of answers taken in. These occasions help to connect to the needs of individuals and the needs of the team as well.

One month later

We are over a successful demo and finished the work. We delivered an excellent result. We received excellent user feedback, and the customer is satisfied. In case we didn't solve the problem. We just got connected.