Most student project teams depend on a high degree of commitment from team members. Although many team members receive course credit, the amount of work required from team members usually greatly exceeds that of a normal course. Keeping people motivated and morale high is essential to maximize both the amount and quality of team member effort. Here’s a few ideas on how to do this.

An effective team is one fully committed to the task at hand. Poor team morale can compromise dedication and motivation and seriously jeopardize the potential for success. That noted, engineering student projects are work projects, not social clubs; a team that has high morale but little else is fun to be part of but is equally unlikely to be successful. Overall, maintaining morale and motivation is an important concern that will make it easier for the team to accomplish its goals.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

There are two general types of motivation in organizational settings. Extrinsic motivation is tied to outside influences like grades, awards, performing well in competition, etc. In the business world, elements like salary, pension, stock options, vacation time, etc. are examples of extrinsic factors. Extrinsic motivation can also be seen as wanting to avoid punishment—so, fear of missing outside deadlines, achieving a defined level of quality, fear of retribution from leadership or other team members, etc., all qualify.

Intrinsic motivation is more elusive but more effective. An intrinsically motivated team member performs the task enthusiastically and voluntarily. He or she may do so because of a variety of factors: the challenge of resolving problems, an appreciation of the quality of the work environment, enjoying working with friends and colleagues, etc. Generally speaking, an intrinsically motivated team member will work effectively to deadline with little pressure or supervision. They not only know what to do and why it’s important but are charged up about doing it.

Given the difficulty of building and maintaining such motivation, however, appropriate rewards and punishments are necessary to structure tasks and keep people on track. Also, intrinsically motivated people may, in following their instincts, be tempted to keep exploring new challenges and therefore could jeopardize deadlines (e.g., competition deliverables, grades, etc.) that are non-negotiable and final.

In sum, both intrinsic and extrinsic methods of motivation are important and necessary.

General Considerations in Building Morale and Motivation

There are many ways of building and maintaining morale and motivation, and there is no guarantee that any one way will work given a particular team or set of individuals. Things that work one year might bomb the next; strategies that work well with some individuals might alienate and demotivate others. Care must be taken to monitor the effectiveness of any morale and motivation intervention. Leaders should ensure that well-thought-out plans may need to be changed or dropped entirely if they prove to be ineffective.

Things to consider in any morale- and motivation-building exercise are:

• Morale and motivation are cyclical. Inevitably, not everyone is going to be "up" all the time. Particularly near the end of the design phase, morale can be difficult to maintain as people are making tough decisions about their efforts and are anxious to move to the development phase. Similarly, after high-intensity periods (e.g., manufacturing deadlines, post-competition), you can expect a lull. Conversely, the energy and motivation levels during manufacturing and in preparation for team competition tend to be high. In times of ebbing morale, try to boost enthusiasm, but don’t be too surprised by lukewarm results. In times of strong morale, little maintenance work will be necessary. It may be just as effective to remind team members that good times are ahead.
• Gauge the mood and personality of your team and guess what may or may not work. Team leaders should try to plan activities that people will find fun and check to ensure that they’re not proposing things that only they might find fun. Listen to feedback from team members as to what may be fun for them. Also realize that some activities (e.g., going to bars) are necessarily exclusionary, because only some team members will be eligible to participate. It is OK to have some morale-building activities that some people can’t or won’t participate in, but if people are regularly excluded they will feel out of the loop.
• Monitor morale levels through team evaluations. Team morale can be measured through peer evaluation, weekly reports, etc. This provides a formal means of gauging morale and identifying those team members who may be dissatisfied. Any problems noted should be focused on further.
• Monitor morale levels through informal checking. A good supporting technique to formal methods is informal interaction. Team leaders should strive to check up on all team members from time to time informally to inquire about their tasks and see how they are fitting into the team. As with formal evaluation procedures, any problems noted should be solved as soon as possible.

Specific activities to build morale and motivation vary but could include:

• Team parties and dinners
• Team outings (e.g., paintball, go-karting)
• Office pools
• Intramural sport teams
• Off-topic/humor e-mail lists
• Tokens of appreciation (e.g., "hardcore" team member awards)

Maintaining task-based intrinsic motivation is admittedly difficult but can be done through:

• Encouraging engagement in tasks (everyone has a role to play)
• Making sure the task is demanding (not so challenging as to be too difficult, not so easy that it’s boring)
• Building effective subteams (encouraging good communication and positive relations among subgroups)
• Acknowledging and rewarding accomplishment (letting subteams who do well know their work is appreciated)
• Giving constructive feedback in private (not berating groups publicly for failure to meet quality or deadline goals, offering positive and progress-oriented advice early to fix problems)