- Building Learning Capabilities

Sensing the System: Motivation

The Volunteer Alliance and the Learn to Change teams developed a leadership and motivation learning system, including a web-based app called MOTI.

The aim of this learning system is to allow all National Societies to further improve the engagement, motivation and well-being of their volunteers.

In this data-driven social learning system, managers, supervisors and volunteer coordinators interpret the feedback from their teams, reflect on and adjust their leadership skills. They will thus enhance the motivation, engagement and wellbeing of their teams. The system is based on the widely researched, accepted and used evidence-based framework called Self Determination Theory (SDT – see references below).

The overall learning system, with its feedback loops, shared learning, prototyping, experential training and self-reflection, is based on Learn to Change principles.

The methods on which the app and the leadership training are built were successfully tested by IFRC and five National Societies: Swiss Red Cross, Austrian Red Cross, Ecuador Red Cross, Mongolia Red Cross and Ethiopian Red Cross.

Results were presented and discussed at the volunteer leadership training organized by the Spanish Red Cross in September 2019.

It was at this meeting that over 50 volunteer coordinators from as many National Societies agreed to develop the leadership training and the app and incorporate both into one data-driven learning system.

Since the meeting in 2019, more National Societies fielded the survey: Bulgarian Red Cross, Croatian Red Cross, Brazilian Red Cross, etc. The Kyrgyzstan Red Crescent Society (KRCS) is currently testing the full system.

The National Society Policy and Knowledge Development (NSPKD) at IFRC is testing Moti to assess its use for staff. The results are being drafted and discussed here

Here are the links to the KRCS beta test presentation videos:

Beta Test intro. In this short clip we explain how the KRCS will test the system. This is where we go into the details of the system itself as illustrated in the infographic at the top of this page.

Presentation intro and part 1.

In this clip we present the RCRC volunteer Leardership Learning System and start reflecting on leadership.

Presentation part 1 – The reflection on leadership and how leaders motivate us continues here

Presentation part 1 – STD
We present Self Determination Theory to explain how leaders and managers motivate their teams. SDT is the science that underpins the Volunteer Leadership Learning System, including the app. It helps you to analyse the volunteer feedback you will get when you use the MOTI app

​Presentation part 1 – STD motivational outcomes
SDT explains how different leadership and managerial styles impact the motivational levels of their teams, their engagement and their well-being. The MOTI app also captures poor mental health outcomes such as burnout.

Presentation part 2
Here we show how the MOTI app and its automatically generated graphs mirror the SDT framework, allowing for easy interpretation and discussions.

MOTI demo: getting started
In this clip, the MOTI designer demonstrates, with the help of the KRCS, how to use the MOTI app.

If you have any questions, please contact Gabriel Pictet: [email protected]

References and further reading on motivation, leadership and Self Determination Theory

Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci (2000) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions, Contemporary Educational Psychology 25, 54–67 (Document) Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci (2000)  Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being,  American Psychologist Vol. 55, No. 1, 68-78 (Document) Stefan T. Güntert, Isabel T. Strubel, Elisabeth Kals & Theo Wehner (2016) The quality of volunteers’ motives: Integrating the functional approach and self-determination theory, The Journal of Social Psychology, 156:3, 310-327 (Document) Gavin R. Slemp, Margaret L. Kern,· Kent J. Patrick and Richard M. Ryan (2018) Leader autonomy support in the workplace: A meta-analytic review, Motivation and Emotion 42:706–724 (Document) Vareilles G, Marchal B, Kane S, et al (2015) Understanding the motivation and performance of community health volunteers involved in the delivery of health programmes in Kampala, Uganda: a realist evaluation BMJ Open 2015;5:e008614. (Document)