Purpose is built in

Daniel Pink states that Purpose, Autonomy and Mastery are what motivates people. At Q42 we believe that to be true. And we’ve been acting upon that for some time. Let me share an insight I recently had about Purpose.

Promoting autonomy

As a project agency we’re constantly trying to find the best motivated employees to work on a project. Everyone is passionate about something, be it an activity, technology, process or company. Amazing things happen when intrinsically motivated people work together on a project.

To find the optimum match, we have a sales pipeline Slack channel where all incoming leads are published. When a Q’er sees a project that triggers him/her, they can express their interest and hopefully help out on the project.

Also, if a Q’er really thinks something should be built, they’re encouraged to gather a team and start building during Passietijd and W00tcamp. When the idea proves promising, there are different ways Q42 can help it fulfil that promise. For instance as an internal startup or by finding a customer for the to-be-built product and creating it together.

What motivates Q’ers?

Because of this autonomy, you can clearly see what intrinsically motivates people. And lately I’ve been seeing more and more projects that really have a Purpose. With a capital P, as in making the world a better place in some way.

Most of these projects start out small, with just a dream born at the lunch table. But we’re getting pretty good at executing on these dreams. By now, Q42 is making waves in education with LessonUp and CodeUur, helping Greenpeace with drones, using VR to support elderly people), helping web designers and developers create more accessible products, amongst many others.

Fixing real problems

Apparently Q’ers want to be solving real problems.

As a company, Q42 only has to give them a little nudge and some guidance, and their internal flames lights up. For Q42 it’s incredibly valuable to foster these initiatives within the company. If we don’t, those flames might die, or never light up in the first place.