The Power of Positive Feedback

Someone who loses a significant amount of weight often experiences encouraging comments from friends and family, clothes start to fit better, activities become easier, and health improves. All of this boosts motivation and a sense of mastery, making it easier to continue doing what it takes to lose even more weight. This is called a positive feedback loop. Your actions generate positive reinforcement, which in turn strengthens the behaviors necessary to reach your goal.

But then what happens once the weight goal is reached? Everyday-life sets in! 

The positive feedback fades or disappears entirely. Attention vanishes. The results of your efforts are no longer as visible, and as a result, motivation and mastery decline, and weight gain becomes a reality again. Some would argue that the same kind of positive feedback loop happens in most projects. You’re part of a shared mission with clear goals, solid frameworks, and enough resources. All of these factors boost motivation and a sense of progress, which is essential for pushing a project forward.

But then everyday life takes over here too. The project ends, the cake is eaten, the funds are gone, and new routines must be implemented while the people involved return to their regular tasks. The attention fades, motivation and mastery decrease or disappear, and with them, our belief that we can succeed.

A complicating factor is that it’s not just the project team expected to carry the changes forward, but the entire organization, including people who never experienced the motivation or mastery generated during the project. Yet, we continue to launch new projects without giving the post-project phase the same level of priority as the project itself.

Why is that?

The Optimism Bias

The optimism bias might be one explanation. It’s our built-in belief that we’re less likely to experience negative events and more likely to experience positive ones compared to others (Weinstein, 1980. Unrealistic optimism about future life events). For example, on the day people get married, almost no one thinks they’ll get divorced, even though around half of all marriages end that way. And this holds true even for people marrying for the second time (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008, Nudge).

Another example comes from a study where aspiring entrepreneurs were asked two questions:

1. What percentage of people do you think succeed in starting a business?

2. What are the chances you personally will succeed?

Their answers: (1) 50 percent chance for people in general and (2) 90 percent chance for themselves (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008, Nudge). 

The positive side of optimism bias is that it makes us more satisfied overall. It serves a real function for individuals and within projects. Believing that we’ll succeed increases our likelihood of success, and expecting good things enhances happiness. But the downside is that we make poor decisions, like skipping seatbelts, avoiding insurance, or ignoring sunscreen (Sharot, T., 2011. The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain).

Or that we continue launching big and small projects, public and private, without truly preparing for what it takes to make a new service, product, or system successful in the long run. Without laying the groundwork for lasting change.

The Importance of Intrinsic Motivation

To achieve lasting results, we must make concrete plans for the post-project phase. The key to success lies in the details. Of course, planning is often done, but experience shows these plans are rarely detailed enough. Resources are lacking, and little time is spent setting clear goals for how necessary changes will stick over time. Even more rarely is this planning done together with the people most affected. As a result, the positive feedback loop breaks down, barriers take over, and intrinsic motivation fades.

Research shows that intrinsic motivation is based on three basic psychological needs:

• Competence: the need to feel capable and equipped to do the task

• Autonomy: the need for choice and control (we don’t like being told what to do)

• Relatedness: the need for a sense of belonging

 (Deci & Ryan, Self-Determination Theory)

We need to create conditions that support intrinsic motivation, for example by: 

1. Genuinely involving employees in the planning and implementation of the project early on. This fosters a sense of autonomy, giving them influence over the process and a role in decision-making.

2. Allowing time to establish new routines and to train. If people lack the skills, or the opportunity to learn the new methods and workflows, they’ll quickly fall back into old habits. Old ways feel faster, offer more control, and are less stressful.

3. Ensuring adequate resources are available. It's often when the new service or product is being implemented that problems arise. That’s why it's essential to set aside funds for the post-project phase. This is rarely done, but it's crucial for achieving long-term impact.

We should aim to create a continuous positive feedback loop in our projects that helps maintain people’s intrinsic motivation and sense of mastery over time. That can make the difference between lasting change and a return to old habits and routines.

Some might argue that employees must tolerate change processes, that it’s a natural part of working life, and that there simply isn’t time or resources to accommodate everyone’s preferences. Of course, it’s about priorities. But research shows that intrinsically motivated employees experience lower job stress and absenteeism, are less likely to change jobs, have higher organizational commitment, and demonstrate better performance (Kuvaas & Dysvik, 2016).

If we know the real work starts when the project ends, can we really afford to neglect the planning and prioritization of that phase just as much as the project phase itself?