Progress-focused

In progress-focused work, motivation plays a central role. One of the most important pillars is supporting autonomous motivation . This means that people engage in activities that they find interesting or important. But not everyone responds the same to autonomy support. Why is that? And what can we do when people respond less positively to it? Here, causality orientation theory (COT) – a relatively “forgotten” mini-theory within self-determination theory (SDT) – offers valuable insights. Read here how you can work with individuals with different causality orientations.

Sometimes people make the following two assertions about progress-focused work: (1) progress-focused work is not focused on problems but on progress, and (2) progress-focused work is not focused on the past but on the future. These assertions sound enthusiastic and I'd rather not be a killjoy but I find it important to contradict them. Neither talking about the past, nor talking about problems is a taboo in progress-focused work. Indeed, both are important elements in virtually every progress-focused conversation. I'll explain below.