PEOPLE D E V E LO P M E NT MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2020 N O 9

06
CAN RESPONSIBILITY
MOTIVATE?
Christopher Avery,Ph.D.
The Responsibility Company,
CEO & Founder

50
MOTIVATING
AGILE TEAMS
Bob Galen
Principal Agile Coach at Vaco

16
CLEAN
MOTIVATION
Shaun Hotchkiss
Clean Language
Supervisor

THIS EDITION’S TOPIC

MOTIVATION

www.bcoaching.online
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MARCH 2018. JUNE 2018. OCTOBER 2018.

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FEBRUARY 2019. JUNE 2019. OCTOBER 2019.

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FEBRUARY 2020. JUNE 2020. OCTOBER 2020.

INTERACTIVE

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EDITORIAL
The world is changing at a rapid pace, Avery, a man who has been studying
we are getting used to working from responsibility for many years. His inter-
home and the business environment pretation of 5 levels of responsibility is
we knew until just about six months one of the most useful tools for work-
ago will never be the same again. ing with employees. Shaun Hotchkiss,
with the example of a “clean” mindset,
We made a turnaround as well, in the shared with us how important commu-
magazine format, replacing the paper nication is important in a business and
version with a new, digital one. The private context. Other authors have
first digital, interactive June issue also selflessly shared their knowledge
was our contribution to innovation and experience so that we could sup-
and the trend of adaptation. In that port the business community together.
light, here we are with the ninth edi-
tion of the magazine, which is also The next, jubilee tenth issue will be
interactive. We tried to cover the topic published in February 2021. Until then,
of the issue, motivation, from different we wish you health and successful
angles, so that each of us could get business ventures.
better insights. When we set the topic
for the October issue at the beginning
of the year, we had no idea how import- Stay safe and follow us on:
ant it would be in the new situation.
www.bcoaching.online
When we look back three years from
this time distance, we notice a big dif-
ference between the first and the ninth
edition. We regularly made small incre-
mental changes that we implemented
from edition to edition. And once again
Magazine's friend
it was shown, this time on the exam-
ple of a magazine, that agile transfor-
mation is not done in quantum, huge
leaps, but in small steps, which in the
end make a significant difference.
In this issue, we spoke with Christopher

3
 CONTENT

EDITORIAL
03 CHRISTOPHER AVERY
CAN RESPONSIBILITY
06
MOTIVATE?

SHAUN HOTCHKISS
CLEAN MOTIVATION
16
IVANKA NOVAKOVIĆ
THE PARADOXICAL
22
LEADERSHIP &
SABINA LAMMERT
MY VIEW ON
26 COACHING IN INCREASED
COMPLEXITY
MOTIVATION

MARTA FORAI
28
BRANKO VUKOVAC
EMPLOYEE
32 HOW TO CREATE
A MOTIVATING
MOTIVATION ATMOSPHERE FOR
LEADERS

Chief & Executive Editor / Srđan Pavlović . Editorial Team / Srđan Pavlović, Marinko Brdarević, Dragana Pavlović,
Ana Basrak, Staša Pavlović. This Issue’s Guests / Christopher Avery, Shaun Hotchkiss, Bob Galen, and others.
Designer / Marinko Brdarević. Print / Online. Publisher / Coaching Expert Team DOO.
CIP Каталогизација у публикацији Народна библиотека Србије, Београд 159.92
All unsigned photos are from private collection or copyright free BUSINESS coaching: people development
magazine / chief editor Srđan Pavlović. - 2020, No. 9 (October)- . - Belgrade : Coaching expert team,
2020- (Belgrade :
ELENA AMINOVA
TEAM MOTIVATION
36 VALENTINA ĐORĐEVIĆ
MY TEAM, MY
40
& AGILE COACHING MOTIVATION

AMIR PELED
HOW TO INSPIRE
44 BOB GALEN
MOTIVATING AGILE
50
MOTIVATION AT WORK TEAMS

MICHAEL DOYLE
BEHIND ALL MOTIVATION
56 SRĐAN PAVLOVIĆ
THE PURPOSE OF
62
IS DESIRE LEADERSHIP IS A
MOTIVATED TEAM

AGILE SERBIA
EDUCATION IS (NOT) ON
68
THE BREAK: FACTS THAT
MATTER
CAN RESPONSIBILITY
MOTIVATE?
CHRISTOPHER AVERY, PH.D.
The Responsibility Company, CEO & Founder,
Austin, Texas, the USA
Tell us first something about your hob-
bies and things that you’re doing with
passion.
I love cycling. I’m interested in my health. Many
years ago, as I explored my values, my sec-
ond most important value was to treat my
mental and physical health as my most im-
portant assets. So in addition to nutrition and
other forms of exercise, I do a lot of cycling.
I own two road bikes and a mountain bike. Aus-
6
tin has beautiful places to ride. I ride usually at
least 60 or 80 miles a week, sometimes more.
I also have come to love plants and flowers. I pur-
chased a new property last fall, so now I’m busy
with beautiful plants indoors as well, which to me
represents life and living art. There’s a couple of my
passions.
Thanks. Let’s talk about responsibility,
as your area of expertize. Does respon-
sibility have something to do with matu-
rity? Can, for example, Peter Pan be re-
sponsible?
How is responsibility related to maturi-
ty? Our world is full of lies and limiting be-
liefs. Every human being grows up being
taught untruths by well-intended parents,
teachers and others. A part of maturity is
gaining the wisdom of seeing those lies.
You get into a problem, so you get into anx-
iety and frustration and when you really ex-
amine it you may realise „Oh, I’ve been be-
lieving X all my life and X isn’t true. And now
I see the truth.“ At this point you actually free
up mental energy—that’s where new-found
freedom, choice, and power comes from.
The more you practice
responsibility, the more
you see things as they
truly are. This indicates
some relationship between
maturity, wisdom and
responsibility.
I would not say that maturity makes one
more responsible, but rather that practising
responsibility makes one wiser faster. Then
you can even appear mature at a young age.
The first time I saw The Responsibility
Process® was in my early days learning
the agile way of work. But this is much
more than just a tool, isn’t it?
Yes, responsibility is not simply about agile.
In fact, it is not just about work at all. It‘s
about life.
The Responsibility Process
is a cognitive pattern that
uniquely explains how
we respond to change,
frustration and things going
wrong. That’s all it is. It’s a
mental pattern that operates
in every human being.
Awareness of it, as well as putting it to use
in one’s own life, can make one more agile.
And it can also make one more free, more
powerful, give you more choice, more love,
and more peace. One could become happier,
more productive, have better relationships,
etc. Success gurus have always said that
the first principle of success in any endeav-
our is to take 100% responsibility. So prac-
tising responsibility delivers any benefit that
you’re looking for, better health, better life,
better career, better work, better relation-
ships, better productivity, happiness, what-
ever.
I am just curious now, how can we prac-
tice responsibility?
Yes, practicing responsibility! That’s what
my focus has been on for the last three
years at least. I learned that I could write
about The Responsibility Process or speak
about it, and inspire people, have them be all
excited. But later I found out that less than
1% of people actually do something with the
information, because knowing about The
Responsibility Process does you no good.
Only applying your life to the process pro-
vides any benefit.
So the way to practice it is to catch yourself
in the mental state of Lay Blame and stop
blaming. Then catch yourself in Justify and
stop justifying. Catch yourself in Shame,
stop shaming. Catch yourself in Obligation,
refuse to be trapped. Only then does your
7
mind introduce you to the mental state of
Responsibility, which is the place where you
find clarity, where you have access to all of
your brilliant resourcefulness. We call it the
mental state of freedom, choice and power.
So, you practice it by using the three keys
of Intention, Awareness and Confront. I‘ll ex-
plain each.
Intention works in two ways. The first way
to start practising is to set an intention to
get to the mental state of Responsibility
around every upset in your life. That is be-
cause that’s the only place that you get rid
8
of the upset. That’s the only place you find
and solve the real problem behind the upset.
Life teaches us to cope with the upset. Most
people are really good at coping, especially
well-educated, highly motivated, high per-
formers. We have been taught to cope by
choosing to operate from Lay Blame, Jus-
tify, Shame and Obligation our whole lives,
and we’re very good at it.
We use the intention key, the power of free
will, to commit to getting to the mental state
of Responsibility around every upset. I’ve
had a responsibility practice for 29 years.
While other people get stuck at Lay Blame,
I recognise blame in myself in about a hun-
dredth of a second and I let it go. I move up
the chart in another half a second and say
„Okay, how did I create this upset for myself
and how am I going to get rid of this?“
The second key to practising is Awareness.
The type of awareness that this offers you is
self awareness. You become so much more
aware of your own thinking and how you get
stuck or trapped. You should get to know
yourself better when you’re blaming, so you
can catch yourself. The same applies for
each of the other mental states. The reason
why people stay stuck in coping is because
they’re not even aware they’re doing it. Most
of the work that responsibility coaches,
mentors and masters do with people is just
helping them see how they’re coping. So,
awareness is huge.
The third key is Confront, which means to be
willing to face your own fear, to look in the
mirror and face your anxiety, face your up-
set, because that’s the only place where you
can actually examine your thoughts and find
the lie, as well as the real truth. And that’s
how you grow and develop the wisdom.
The way you practice responsibility is by re-
alising there’s nothing you can do about The
Responsibility Process pattern in your mind.
It’s always there. It’s in you, it’s in me, it’s in
everybody and it’ll never change. Every time
something goes wrong for me, my mind
goes to Lay Blame.
It’s the 3 keys of Intention,
Awareness, and Confront
that you develop as powers
of mind to access The
Responsibility Process.
Intention, our ability for free will, awareness,
consciousness, attention, focus, mindful-
ness, presence. Confront, the courage to
face ourselves and to face our own fears.
In all of our free DIY services, as well as all
of our premium services, I am trying to help
people practice so they make themselves
wiser faster. I’m not trying to just teach
models, or teach information. I’m trying to
help people actually start applying it on a
daily basis, because things go wrong all day
every day.
We agreed to explain a bit of these
boundary things. Because The Respon-
sibility Process is just the peak of an
iceberg when talking about responsi-
bility. There is something more. Setting
boundaries is for me a very thin line be-
tween quitting and saying „Okay, I don’t
care about anything“. And when you set
boundaries, we from the other side have
the right to protect ourselves by not be-
ing involved in this whole process. So
can you explain a bit more if we can do
something about it?
9
We got to the mental state of Quit out of the
pain of Shame and the burden of Obliga-
tion. What I’ve learned is that when smart,
educated professionals start practising re-
sponsibility, we quickly become excellent at
identifying and getting ourselves off of Lay
Blame and Justify. However, we continue to
spend a tremendous amount of time coping
in Shame, Obligation and Quit.
The reason for that is that doing what we
should do, whether we want to or not, is
called being responsible by society. So,
good people spend a lot of time in Shame
and Obligation, which creates more hurt and
frustration inside.
If you look at the definition of Quit, you will
see that it is a mental state. It’s like putting
something in a closet. We have a big closet
in our mind. We put problems there in order
to stop feeling so bad. The issue here is that
they still take emotional and mental energy
when they’re in Quit, they just don’t hurt as
much. An example is the language of disen-
gagement. Quit is the responsibility model
language for being actively disengaged. We
have so much of the population that’s ac-
tively disengaged at work. Well, why is that?
They need a job. They take a job where either
the job itself or the environment or even both
does not inspire them or call on their genius.
So that’s Obligation – they have to show up
and put in the time to get the paycheck. And
then they feel bad about not knowing how to
find a better job. So the way they save their
10
sanity is to show up and disengage. They go
to Quit. Quit as a way of trying to save our
sanity, because we don’t know how to grow,
how to take responsibility.
I see this every day in my work. One of the rea-
sons I love this material so much is because
every day I see smart, educated, high-per-
forming, good wage earning, brilliant peo-
ple, who feel trapped in lives that they don’t
like. They don’t know how they got there and
they don‘t know how to change it. They cope
by cycling repeatedly through Shame, Obli-
gation and Quit, what we call psuedo-re-
sponsibility. They are being good citizens
according to society‘s standards becasue
society rewards Shame, Obligation, and
Quit. They’re on the hamster wheel. Socie-
ty‘s economic machine keeps feeding them
advice about how to be more successful,
more productive, how to make more money,
get a bigger house and find a better spouse.
But they’re never really addressing the real
problem, which is that they’re not using their
unique inspiration and their unique genius
to produce the results that matter to them.
That’s what I’m trying to change in the world.
We talked about how implementing The
Responsibility Process in our daily life
is changing our understanding of re-
sponsibility. You mentioned that The
Responsibility Process, or responsibility
as a word, has different meanings in dif-
ferent cultures. In Serbia, responsibility
can connect to a lot of things. However, I
believe that the theory that you’re prac-
tising and preaching here is unique for
every man on earth. So how can we be so
persistent to succeed in our practising to
be responsible?
Good question. Thank you for asking.
First of all, create the intention to practise,
and to get to Responsibility around every
upset. Take a hard look at this model and
decide whether or not this model represents
what happens in your head. When I looked at
this model for the first time, I already had a
PhD in organisational science, I had tonnes
of psychology and sociology models.
I looked at this model and
I said „This is the most
amazing model of normal
psychology I’ve ever seen,
that says more about how
the normal person’s mind
works than any other model.“
So I’d say number one, decide that that’s
true for you and that you want to apply it in
your life everyday.
And number two, realise that it’s 10,000
times easier to see it at work in other peo-
ple than it is to see it in ourselves, because
we see it in other people’s behaviour and
language. And when we are coping in those
states, we don’t see it in ourselves. So stop
applying it to anybody but ourselves. Create
an intention to get to the mental state of re-
sponsibility over every upset, every anxiety,
every frustration, every annoyance in our
life, because that’s what’s going to create
growth, learning and freedom and reveal
your own inspiration and your own genius
to you.
I want to address your question about „re-
sponsibility“ meaning different things. I
don’t think it just means different things in
different cultures. I think within cultures,
responsibility means about 1000 differ-
ent things. But at its essence, responsibil-
ity means cause and effect. So „Who was
responsible for that?“ is a question of who
caused that effect. The mental state of Re-
sponsibility that we’re talking about is de-
fined as „owning my power and ability to
create, choose and attract.“ So if I own my
power and ability to create shoes and at-
tract my reality, then that means I’m always
creating, choosing and attracting my whole
world. Which means if there’s anything in
my world I’m experiencing that upsets me,
then I’m the one that gets to examine why
it’s upsetting me and what I get to change
in order to not be upset.
For the end, you invested a big part of
your work and life studying responsibil-
ity. Have you ever asked yourself „Is it
worth it?“
Sometimes when I’m challenged, I do ask
myself that. The answer is always „of course
it’s worth it.“ I wouldn’t trade it for a thing.
I’ve had the fullest, richest life I could im-
agine. I am free, powerful, and at choice.
And that feels amazing.
11
 To me, motivation means a lot! It is one of the most useful
‘indicator words’ in the English language, linking togeth-
er the force of emotion with the power of value and com-
mitment. Emotion indicates short-term motivation only. Val-
ue motivation, which coaches know how to assist, creates
high-level commitment! This increases motivation exponen-
tially. With value and commitment, motivation can gradual-
ly morph into visionary, high-level leadership: This is where
people link to the future, link to the development of others,
and take on a big game worth playing! High-level motiva-
tion becomes a lighthouse to others!

MARILYN ATKINSON, Owner, Erickson Coaching In-

ternational and Human Resources Specialist
How to start a new digital era for my business?
CLEAN
MOTIVATION
SHAUN HOTCHKISS, Registered psychotherapist, Clean Language Supervisor,
Facilitator, Systemic Modeller & organisational change consultant,
West Kirby, Merseyside, United Kingdom
Tell us first something about yourself,
what is your passion?
I really like people, as I’m a very gregarious
kind of guy.
In my youth I played a lot of rugby, I enjoyed
the physical and social aspects of the game.
Now, I like entertaining and cooking, having
people around the house chatting.
I’m dyslexic, so I really struggle with lots of
written words and texts. I’m very visual and
verbal, so what I I’d much rather be talking
16
to people about ideas and situations, that’s
me when I am learning, creating and devel-
oping at my best.
Tell us now more about CLEAN, because
it became a real buzzword in agile world.
Everything I read about agile somehow
connects with CLEAN. Could you share
some basics about it?
There are three parts to CLEAN.
Clean Questions relate to obtaining infor-
mation about, attributes, location and se-
quence.
And where is?
It’s …. like what?
Is there anything else about …?
What would you like to have
happen?
What happened just before?
There’s a CLEAN mindset, it shows what
state you need to be in to be CLEAN and
there are some presuppositions about that.
One is that the other person knows their
subjective experience better than anyone.
They’re the expert on themselves. They’re We talked a bit about how to connect
the one who understands it. And it’s a very CLEAN mindset, CLEAN questions,
person-centred approach because we want CLEAN set up feedback and everything
to keep our experience separate from the else with motivation.
other person’s.
So, there’s a couple of ways that we can do
So that we’re not interfering with it or we are
motivation. Why don’t we try now. Can you
doing it as little as possible. We choose to
think of a time when you were really moti-
trust the wisdom in their system, that they
vated? And when you were motivated, you
know what’s right for them on a very deep
were motivated like what?
personal ecological level.
It’s about trusting that the wisdom is there,
Like Superman.
and it’s our job to let it reveal itself, rather
than impose structures, ideas or thoughts. Tell us something about that Superman.
That doesn’t mean that there’s not time to
do that. We all need expert advice informa-
He’s strong, excited and so powerful to
tion and guidance at some point.
change something. So, he’s strong.

But the CLEAN approach is, And where does this „strong“ come from?
let’s see what the other person
knows. It comes from beliefs that I could change
something to be better for me and the
Originally, the models were developed by a
magazine.
psychotherapist, David Grove. And a lot of
this work came from the therapy field. Cait- And when things are better for you and your
lin Walker moved this into groups and sys- magazine, what happens next?
temic work. When we talk about CLEAN in
groups or in businesses and teams, we now I will include more people. I will invest
generally refer to that as Systemic Model- more time and energy to develop the
ling, using CLEAN tools to build a model of magazine more.
the system. CLEAN language itself is a very
Okay. And is there anything else about your
basic set of questions which are designed to
motivation being like Superman?
expand, model and develop someone else’s
subjective experience, keeping it all for them,
without us interfering. The questions are the
Maybe I could say that I almost feel like
basic tools to maintain this CLEAN stance
I can fly.
that we operate in.

17
Great, so now we’ve got a metaphor and a
little bit of a model about your experience
of motivation. I could have delivered moti-
vational speeches, about my motivation but
that would not have helped me uncover any
information about you.
Instead, I’m going to remember that your
motivation is like Superman, because met-
aphors are easy to remember. So then, if
we were doing this in a team, you’re Super-
man, and we’ve got Batman and Robin over
there, but we might have the Joker some-
where. One of the big advantages of mod-
elling it CLEANLY is that you own that now,
that’s yours and it’s going to be embodied
in you. You can reanact your motivation like
Superman whenever you want now. But oth-
er people can now relate to that. It’s not a
psychometric test so there’s more chance
of everyone in your office recognising that
when you’re motivated, you’re like Super-
man, rather than ‘you’re an ABC, one, three,
front stage, backstage person,’ because
those reports tend to stick in cupboards.
That’s one-way CLEAN works with motiva-
tion.
It’s modelling your experience of being mo-
tivated.
Sometimes in organisations,
they can spend a lot of money
or they might even bring in an
Olympic gold medallist. He’ll
talk to you about all of this kind
of stuff. This tends to rocket
18
motivation in a moment. It’s like
you see a good movie or watch
a great game of sports and
you’re really motivated in the
moment. But it’s not generated
from your system. You walk out
and think „Ah, that was great,
what’s next?“
But hopefully even after two, three minutes
of just finding out about your Superman, and
what that could make possible for you and
your company, that might just stick around
with you. It’s self-generated, it’s bottom up.
It should stick with you.
As you said, I’m Superman. You’re Bat-
man, we have Robin, we have Joker
maybe, how are we supposed to connect
those people to achieve one higher goal?
The first thing is to understand the struc-
ture of the metaphor. A metaphor is going
to contain content, context and structure of
the experience. The metaphor of Superman
is going to contain “all of the Superman” and
the metaphor of “Batman” will contain all of
the “Batman”. This will allow you to recog-
nise diversity across the team. Another ex-
ample might be. When asked – “when you
are working at your best, you’re like what?”
Someone may say “I’m playing in a big
band“.
Someone else might be as “I’m as quiet as
a mouse”.
Different metaphors highlight the diversity
in the team.
The metaphors, because they are modelled
CLEANLY are going to reveal peoples inner
experience, in a respectful way.
Then you’re creating the causes and con-
ditions of trust and all of the that we that
we all do anyway. And then by asking each
other CLEAN questions. That is because
the CLEAN methodology can then model
the different metaphors and people get in-
terested in them. And somehow, that lets
them all up either to another joint metaphor,
or the mouse can work out how to work in
the band. But again, all the wisdom and the
information is coming from the system. It’s
not being directed in.

In the end, what is the biggest room for

improvement for CLEAN methodology?

In a way, CLEAN is limited by its history. It

came from therapy and working with the
complex trauma, that’s how I learned it. It
took a little while to spread from psychother-
apy into coaching. Then, thanks to Caitlin
and other leaders in the field it’s moved into
business, health, education and research
and is being used a lot. However, its biggest
challenge is getting a foothold in different
industries and getting them to share their
experience.

19
 For me motivation ar work is comparable with
love in personal life. At thought of the project
you are working on, you feel buterflies in your
stomach, you look forward to the moments you
will spend working and when you encounter dif-
ficulties, you see them only as small boamp on
the road that will help you grow more as a per-
son and professional...

ANA MINIĆ, Head Of Human Resources at Sberbank Srbija

a.d. Beograd, Serbia

For me, motivation is the

activation of the reward cir-
cuit in the brain. Dopamine
is released and we experi-
ence an instant brain boost.
FRIEDERIKE FABRITIUS, Neuroscientist, keynote speaker,
and award-winning author, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-West-
phalia, Germany
 For me, motivation is passion in action.
It’s a fulfillment of the yearning to do the
right thing for the right reasons. It’s the spark
that ignites movement and alignment with-
in organizations. A leader’s motivation must
be clear, and in service to the mission of the
organization and its people.

HOWARD SUBLETT, Co-CEO/Chief Product Owner

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

For me, motivation is like the

smell of freshly baked bread. Pur-
suit of bread is quite fundamental
for the survival, and often not too
sophisticated to think twice.
CEYDA GULTAN, MA, CPHR, ACC, Associate Director, Hu-
man Resources at Canadian Mental Health Association,
BC Division. North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
THE PARADOXICAL
LEADERSHIP & COACHING
IN INCREASED COMPLEXITY
IVANKA NOVAKOVIĆ, CEO & Founder ProConsulting,
Organisational development expert,
Belgrade, Serbia

22
“It’s obvious we need to cut costs due to COVID-19
crises, but I just feel if we don’t continue investing in Just to give you few examples to “taste”
business and people, we will have serious conse- this challenge:
quences next year. I just don’t know which way to go…”
Strategy & Execution
“I want my company to have systems in place. Give freedom & Keep control
To have predictable processes. To make our dai- Invest & Cut costs
ly work easy to follow, to have great traceability of Innovate & Keep systems stabile
steps. I want a system that will give us stability! But Task/results orientation & People orientation
my partner would like us to be extremely flexible
Structure & Flexibility
all the time. To be able to seize every opportunity,
Continuity & Transformation
to have many innovative and creative solutions all
Centralize & Decentralize
the time. I can’t really tell who’s right… Is there a
Data & Intuition
way that we could have both at the same time?”
Courage & Vulnerability
“I constantly receive feedback I’m too direct Being competent & Being challenged
and straight forward in communication and My needs & Other’s needs
it hurts people sometimes. I really want to be
more diplomatic. It’s only that I’m afraid what
would happen to me and my career if I just
THE PARADOXICAL MINDSET
give up on my directiveness and sharpness.”

THE NOBEL PRIZE–WINNING physicist Niels

“We’ve grown as a company over the night. I need
to delegate more, but don’t want to lose control.
Don’t know how to achieve it, so I just work more
and more. Now I’m too tired. I need to find solution.”
These are just few examples I’ve been hearing
from my clients last couple of months.
Leaders are today, more than
ever, invited to find ways to
integrate opposing directions,
opposing needs, opposing
objectives, opposing approaches
and to manage their flow in the
organization.
Bohr once said, “How wonderful that we have
met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of
making progress.”
Paradoxes, that we also call
“polarities” are ongoing, chronic
issues that are unavoidable and
unsolvable, but manageable!
A fundamental question to ask when encoun-
tering a difficulty is: “Is this a problem we can
‘solve,’ or is it an ongoing paradox/polarity we
must manage well?” If it is a paradox/polarity
you must manage, applying traditional prob-
lem-solving skills will increase the problem
rather than help it.
There is a significant competitive advantage for

23
organizations that can both solve problems and
manage paradoxes/polarities. Organizations
that manage polarities well and use the power
of tension laying between paradoxes outper-
form those that don’t.
Here are some examples, mentioned by Berry
Johnson in his article “Polarity Management”:
• In Managing on the Edge, Richard Tanner Pas-
cale studied the 43 companies identified in, In
Search of Excellence five years after the origi-
nal research. He discovered that 14 companies
retained their “Excellent” rating and the 29 that
did not. The key factor that distinguished the 14
from the 29 was that they managed 7 paradox-
es/polarities better. He calls it “managing con-
tention”.
• In Built to Last, Collins and Porras call it, “The
Genius of the ‘AND’”. This was a central distinc-
tion between the 18 “Silver” companies that out-
performed the stock market for the period from
1926 to 1990 by a factor of 2, and the 18 “Gold”
companies that outperformed the stock market
during that same period by a factor of 15! The
Gold companies tapped the power of polarities
= “The Genius of the ‘AND’”.
• In Charting the Corporate Mind, Charles Hamp-
den-Turner calls it “re-solution of dilemmas.”
His research repeatedly shows that organiza-
tions effectively managing key organizational
dilemmas results in better bottom line perfor-
mance than those not managing the same di-
lemmas well.
TOWARD A DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM
How to achieve this manageable flow
of contradictory polarities so im-
portant for business and life today?
A well-managed polarity is one in which
you capitalize on the inherent tensions be-
tween the two poles. You get the benefits
of both and the synergies between them.
24
A paradox/polarity is managed poorly when
you over-focus on one side to the neglect
of the other. This is likely to occur when
the issue is seen as an either/or problem.
Let’s see how this works on the example of one
of the hottest topics in business today – innova-
tion:
There is an ongoing imperative to innovate, inno-
vate, innovate… (I’ve even seen a T-shirt given to
the employees of one company that has a print
on it: “Eat, Sleep, Innovate, Repeat”)
You can not only innovate without keeping your
current systems, processes, products or servic-
es stable.
The stability of the current state is the one thing
that gives you the platform to innovate!
Without stability in the first place
that will secure stable cash flow,
you could never invest in innovation.
Vice versa, successful innovation
will lead to a new, upgraded state
which will generate more income
and consequently you will have more
money to invest in new innovative
initiatives. And so on in cycles.
The leadership challenge in this situation is to
manage the polarity Stability & Innovation well.
In managing polarities, it is never “either or”, it is
always “both and” and it is always about dynam-
ics & flow.
A SYSTEMIC APPROACH THAT CAN
HELP
To be on the top of this challenge for both lead-
ers and coaches, we need to upgrade our under-
standing of this topic and to acquire new compe-
tencies and skills to firstly raise our awareness
and see all paradoxes/polarities around us and
secondly to know how to manage them well.
Leaders that manage polarities well are enabled
to:
- Directly upgrade effectiveness and efficiency
Define and execute strategies and tactics that
are more effective and sustainable
- Have better insights into opportunities and
know how to utilize them to their maximum
Implement changes effectively and increase
flexibility
- Raise the ceiling of what is possible
- Have a positive impact on other people’s moti-
vation and engagement
- Create an environment which supports devel-
opment, satisfaction and happiness
- Feel happier and more fulfilled in all areas of
life.
The “Polarity Integration Coaching” gives all the
necessary tools for coaches to help their clients
navigate through new and complex business
and life paradigm.
Our program, when adjusted for leaders, gives
them necessary overview, understanding and
basic competences to face this challenge.
This powerful model teaches step by step the
process of identifying, analyzing and managing
polarities.
By releasing and utilizing the energy locked in
the tension of polarities, visions and goals be-
come achievable and challenges that at this
moment seem “unsolvable” will finally have their
dynamic solutions.
Join us for our next sessions in November and
Decemberto acquire one of the most important
tools for navigating through complexity.
JOIN US
25
26
27
HOW TO CREATE
A MOTIVATING
ATMOSPHERE FOR
LEADERS
MARTA FORAI, Regional Senior HR Partner,
Assert International,
Serbia

28
HOW TO CREATE A MOTIVATING
ATMOSPHERE FOR LEADERS?
It is very important to find a way to inspire
company leaders because they are influ-
encing the motivation of other employees.
There is a widely accepted standpoint
that idealizes a strong self-motivated
leader. And yes, we choose leaders with
strong drive and ability to remain moti-
vated and to motivate others. But if lead-
ers have the ability for self-motivation,
why don’t they always offer great per-
formance? Why do great leaders resign?
If we analyse leaders’ motivation for staying
or leaving a company, it seems that the lead-
ers’ ability to maintain their own motivation
is not enough for staying, and this kind of
employer expectation may cause leader’s
motivation to drop. Leaders state that their
self-motivation is important, but, in addition,
they need independence, purpose, chal-
lenge and development. They need a frame
in which they may use their and colleagues’
potentials in a positive way.
SO HOW DO WE CREATE AN AT-
MOSPHERE THAT MOTIVATES
LEADERS?
After asking about the reasons why they
want to leave, we have concluded that they
are not doing what they were chosen to do.
When we hire leaders who are decisive, ini-
tiatory, independent and know how to over-
come challenges – we have to keep in mind
that they will want to present these qualities
in business practice. Leaders want to make
decisions that matter. They need to have a
feeling that they are shaping the compa-
ny they are a part of. Leaders want a sense
of purpose that matches the vision of their
company. If leaders just enforce and control
other’s decision without contributing to the
path the company is taking, great leaders
will resign.
Leaders who are
independent in decision
making have a stronger
drive toward accomplishing
company goals. In this kind
of corporate culture, leaders
feel a strong identification
with company’s vision.
Even experienced leaders need person-
al development that should be recognized
and supported by its employer. It happens
that even companies with strong develop-
ment culture overlook leaders in their need
for development. When investing in lead-
ers’ management skills, companies tend to
do it before one acquires a leadership po-
sition or shortly after one becomes a lead-
er. This coincides with strong motivation of
younger leaders. Professional development
of experienced leaders is not often in focus,
because there are wrong assumptions that
they have already developed enough, or that
younger colleagues need more attention in
this field. Leaders who are satisfied in their
current company receive adequate mana-
gerial development through coaching, men-
toring, and training. On the other hand, lead-
ers that want to leave state that they would
consider staying if received adequate lead-
ership development.
29
Adequate development makes leaders feel
appreciated and communicates to them
that their individual contribution is valued. It
is not easy to create a suitable development
plan for leadership. Generic development
programs can turn out to be counterproduc-
tive, undermining their existing skills, mak-
ing them feel misunderstood. Leaders will
have most benefit with programs tailored
specifically for them.
A valuable approach is
investigating and assessing
their current competences,
their softness and level
of development needed
for the industry, position,
and market while tailoring
holistic development plan
that styles specific skills
and develops inspiration,
vision and values.
In addition, a major factor that influences
leaders’ motivation are interpersonal re-
lations in the company and the overall at-
mosphere. Healthy working atmosphere
and good interpersonal relationships gener-
ate enthusiasm even with leaders who are
otherwise dissatisfied and are considering
change. They will stay because of good team
members and relations, due to a sense of
responsibility toward their team members.
Leaders that are motivated in their current
30
position feel that they are leading teams of
highly competent people. They can rely on
their team members and have constructive
relationships based on respect. They feel
supported from their peers, and they can
count on them. These satisfied and motivat-
ed leaders also feel they can count on their
superiors if needed support.
Let’s not overlook the changes brought by
COVID-19 pandemic and remote working.
Like everyone, leaders need to have support
at work, and they will seek it in their peers
and superiors. One of the greatest effects
of remote working on motivation and over-
all well-being, is the inability to detach from
work and working after hours. Leaders need
to have the freedom to be flexible and free-
dom to give flexibility to their team mem-
bers.
In order to create an atmosphere where
leaders thrive, we need to nurture the exact
things we chose them for leaders. Simple
enough and yet easily overlooked.
In conclusion, we should rely on leader’s
self-motivation while creating an atmos-
phere that nourishes interpersonal relation-
ships, sense of purpose, decision making
and development.
EMPLOYEE
MOTIVATION
BRANKO VUKOVAC, HR Business Partner Team Lead
at Infostud grupa,
Serbia

32
WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
Let us remind ourselves briefly that there
are numerous definitions defining the em-
ployees’ motivation, but most of them have
in comment the fact that it is some kind of
“driving force” which helps us achieve more
quality solutions and enjoy work more, while
achieving even better results consequently.
EXISTENCE FIRST, DEVELOPMENT
SECOND
Men has always had the need to secure his
existence, or to have the conditions to pro-
vide a roof over his head, to be physically
and psychologically safe.
This implies that properly employed moti-
vation still means that certain pre-require-
ments are met, and this is where the very fa-
mous Maslow’s theory of needs comes into
play, which states that we first need to fulfill
existential needs in order to even think about
fulfilling higher needs. When we are certain
that we have the basic conditions, such as
salary, job security, safe working environ-
ment, psychologically safe team, sense of
belonging and respect, they become
“implicit” and are no longer the
subject of our pondering,
thus we switch our focus
to development oppor-
tunities at work, and
consequentially in
our company. Anal-
ogy in everyday life:
If we have a well-
built and stable foundation of the house we
live in, do we think about it every day or do
we think about further construction of our
living space? I would say it is the latter.
Therefore, the first task of
the management is to make
existential needs implicit as
much as possible. Of course,
it cannot be ideal, and we
should not strive for it, but
continuously working on it is
already enough.
PEOPLE WANT TO BE OWNERS OF
THEIR BUSINESSES
About two years ago, and for the purpos-
es of the project of branding the company
Infostud Group as an employer, we created
focus groups with employees in the IT sec-
tor about what drives them to perform their
work best; there were several reasons, but
here are some essential ones:
• Opportunity to learn through work and
through external channels
• Choose technologies and ways in which
they will work on projects
• Good team that provides professional and
friendly support
Daniel H. Pink mentions these very reasons
in his book “Drive”, but there is also a slight-
ly older theory of self-determined motiva-
33
tion conceived by two psychologists Rich-
ard Ryan and Edward Dissy.
I believe this is some kind of a “recipe” (if
there even is a recipe for working with peo-
ple) that can help us employ the motivation
of our employees.
The first and the most crucial thing is work
autonomy, and to give the employee the
control over what needs to be done and how
it needs to be done as much as possible. Of
course, the most important task of a man-
ager is to direct the work of a sector towards
achieving goals in accordance with the strat-
egy, and this should remain so for now, but
it is also recommended to include the mem-
bers of the team in some way. If they are in-
cluded in making decisions about sector’s
work plans or their positions, it is more likely
that they will feel like themselves, and then a
“fuel” is created for intrinsic motivation that
helps achieve the best results. Here we are
actually encouraging some kind of internal
entrepreneurship in an individual’s work and
responsibility towards the company.
In a system like this, an
employee also has the
opportunity to harmonize
his personal values with
the goals of his position or
sector, which is exceptionally
important for encouraging
intrinsic motivation.
34
In this way, we arrive to the concept which
is advocated by both theories, and that is
“work is like play”. If we have higher au-
tonomy, we have the opportunity to con-
ceive work so that it is in accordance with
our strengths and preferences, which may
result in increased interest in tasks and in-
creased motivation for work. Edward and
Richard say this explicitly in the form of “the
need to play at work”, whereas Daniel in one
part of his book describes Sawyer’s effect
of work, when he turned the simple painting
of a fence into play (more about this in his
book).
The era of knowledge, which we are largely
a part of, has placed a special emphasis on
knowledge and learning, and on the devel-
opment of employees. It is men’s nature to
continually develop, and not only both the-
ories, but also our programmers point it out
as an extremely important need - the need
for competence.
The need for competence doesn’t come on
its own. Namely, according to the self-de-
termining theory, competence gives us cer-
tain type of control over our own lives and
work. It is logical that if we know more and
have more sophisticated skills, it is more
likely that we will build our lives the way we
want them to be. Put this way, the need to be
competent for work is a man’s natural need
that waits to be fulfilled.
If we are building a business
in which we can learn and
develop ourselves, we are
one step closer to higher
motivation.
And finally - Why do I do what I do, or pur-
pose. Purpose somehow represent the ba-
sis and foundation for the two previously
mentioned pillars of motivation, and a com-
ponent which shows us that people actual-
ly have the need to integrate their work and
influence on the system into their self-con-
cept. It is no longer enough, although it is
extremely important, to know our job de-
scription and desired results, but rather to
impact we have on the system by what we
do and how much it fits into our life mission.

To employ the motivation of employees is

an engineer’s job because it requires care-
ful creation of micro and macro employee
environments. We should start with culture
and ask ourselves how much it helps us in
this endeavor, and what we should change
in order to come closer to the macro envi-
ronment that encourages autonomy, com-
petence and purpose. And once we do this
homework, what follows is to be primarily
open to hear our team members out about
what drives them in work and what would
motivate them additionally. Only then comes
the step of engineering primarily their roles
and work, so that they are better suited to
the business purpose and requirements of
team members. And then this becomes
managerial magic.

35
TEAM MOTIVATION
& AGILE COACHING
ELENA AMINOVA, Agile Coach and Servant Leader,
New York, the USA
I was born and raised in Samarkand - city in
southeastern Uzbekistan - one of the oldest
continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia.
Seeking opportunities and freedom, my family
left everything behind and moved to New York
City in November of 1994, when I was only 13
years old. My younger sister Victoria always
looked up to me as her role model – there
was no time to go through the tantrums teen-
agers usually go through at that age. I had
to be self-motivated since my parents didn’t
have time to provide direction or micro-man-
age their daughters as they had to build a life
36
from scratch for the family. Not knowing any
English when I came to the U.S., I was thrown
into the NYC school system to learn to fish on
my own. Immigrating to another country was
a journey to say the least, yet I was motivated
to be self-organized and self-sufficient – and
I thank my parents for instilling those qualities
in me from an early age. I myself was motivat-
ed and learned how to be a mentor to my sis-
ter to motivate her to study. I knew then that
my successes and achievements of goals in
my life journey would only be possible with
self-motivation and self-organization. Today, I
apply these same values and principles to my
teams.
Starting to work with agile teams and see-
ing their growth are what inspires me to
continuously focus on personal, and teams’
advancement and maturity. Working with
leadership to address organizational im-
pediments, protecting a team’s interests
and the positive response in their happiness
and high customer satisfaction result is why
I do what I do every single day!
I enjoy building new teams and taking them
through their agile journey, onboarding them
across their siloed disciplines, and then
from Sprint to Sprint taking them through
their personal journey of self-reflection, in-
spection and adaptation, towards self-real-
ization that it’s in their best interests as a
team to achieve that cross-functional as-
pect and embrace being a T-shaped team –
thus becoming a truly self-organizing team.
At first, some team members look towards
their direct manager, a previous Tech Lead
and/or most senior team member to provide
direction towards what would be the best
next step or provide them direction. Yet, I
encourage the Scrum Masters I coach to
leverage some proven techniques to moti-
vate the teams to be their best on their own.
The “magic wand” is a great tool – I give it to
individuals and teams to explore what they
would do on their own if they had that magic
wand and had the power to do anything they
want to do as a team putting any organiza-
tional issues aside. That’s where the magic
happens – when, for example, team mem-
bers, even the shy ones, leverage that mag-
ic wand and I see all the great ideas start
flowing from the team as a whole! It is excit-
ing to see that growth within a team mem-
ber or even the whole team when they have
that “aha” moment – that they are in control
and they can try something – and it’s OK to
fail if that doesn’t work – at least they had a
chance to explore it on their own.
I used to love motivating teams, celebrating
meeting or exceeding Sprint Goals by taking
the Scrum team out for a team lunch after a
successful Sprint Review where the Scrum-
Master or Product Owner would “raise a
toast” highlighting one growth area the team
applied that Sprint. That would encour-
age the positive behavior and motivate the
team to try new things. It was also a regular
occurrence for several teams to meet and
connect on a different level at our local bar
on Thursday nights for Happy hour.
As an Agile Coach, I am a regular patron
at a local donuts shop as it was easy to fill
up the team rooms with free donuts, cof-
fee, and sweets. During the COVID times,
it’s not as easy to do that nowadays. There
are challenges to stay motivated at times –
as teams put in longer hours working from
home. We are applying the regular practice
of remote happy hours leveraging Zoom,
Microsoft Teams and other collaboration
platforms to connect teams on a personal
level and support them through their per-
sonal challenges at home and at work. One
team’s Scrum Master tried to deliver lunch
to everyone’s home at the same time for a
team’s lunch – food always is a great small
token of appreciation that goes a long way.
It is extremely motivating
when leaders acknowledge
their teams hard work,
attends Sprint Reviews
and also sends a quick
note of support and
acknowledgement of the
hard work the team is
achieving.
37
Motivation is directly related to team’s pro-
ductivity. I am often asked “How do I moti-
vate agile teams and create high perform-
ing teams?” My stance is to motivate teams
by giving team members control over their
work, providing opportunities for challenge
and mastery, and aligning their work with a
higher purpose:

• Be a Servant Leader - Serve the Team’s

Needs – The team may not need much but
having the attitude and willingness to serve
them sends a strong message. Be observant
and look for needs that are not being met for
the team and ways that you can meet them.
Ask “What can I do to help?”.

• Trust the Team to do Their Best Work -

Positive regard is assuming that individuals
are whole, competent, and have the ability
to figure things out for themselves. All peo-
ple are inherently good, and they have all the
internal resources required to grow as indi-
viduals. Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters
need to expect the team can perform at high
levels and solve their own problems.

• It’s not a Sprint, it’s a Journey - Continually

Foster the Team to Become a High Perform-
ing Team – The managers, leaders, Scrum
Masters, and Product Owners should expect
high performance from the team and do all
in their power to encourage it.

In the end, the inner, self-motivation is the

Holy Grail to lead teams at their best. Hav-
ing that kind of motivation, you can face any
challenge leading your teams, grow with
them, and inspire to achieve the excellency
at work. My inner motivation helps me to
continue to grow towards and catch the best
opportunity in everything I do.

38
 Real, intrinsic, motivation comes from the vision of the
goal you want to achieve. Sometimes it is only your per-
sonal goal and the outcome you want from it. Many more
times those are common, mutual, goals that the whole com-
pany or a team has. The strongest motivation comes not only
from the vision or the goal itself than from the outcome, im-
pact it will make on those around you… the higher purpose
it serves. Seeing that purpose in something you do sets the
motivational and executional energy on a high level where
any activity, the least interesting or the most challenging one
is achievable.

SANJA GRABEŽ, General manager Galerija podova

- Tarkett group, Serbia
MY TEAM, MY
MOTIVATION
VALENTINA ĐORĐEVIĆ, Head of Data Science
at Things Solver,
Serbia

40
Monday, 10:00am. I am entering the office
where the regular weekly Leadership Com-
munity (LC) team meeting is held. As usu-
al, we start the meeting by checking in. The
first time we did the check in, I felt a slight
discomfort, however now I can’t wait for the
start of the meeting to hear what’s going on
with my timsters. Sometimes we let improv-
isation take us under its wing, so we change
the course, and the check in turns into an
informal exchange of experiences with a lot
of laughter and jokes.
I listen to those people, and I realize how
lucky I was to become a member of one
such team. Although young, they all have
a strong trait of responsibility, persistance,
commitment and work habits. Everything
that I value in others and what I strive to
myself. Darko is our visionary, always ready
for innovation and creativity. Milos is our
representative - with his charisma and pro-
fessionalism he is the mediator between
clients, the delivery and ourselves. In my
opinion, Siniša is most characterized by pa-
tience and reliability, in addition to his tech-
nical knowledge. Nemanja is a real example
of someone focused on development, effi-
ciency and effectiveness in everyday work.
Dusan is a real “tech lover”, there is no tech-
nology that he could not or would not like
to master, which is a real treasure when you
work on product development. Predrag is a
real refreshment, because he brings a lot of
experience from the business world and a
new energy that is reflected through his in-
novation and open mindness.
It’s been almost a year since we all sat down
and decided to work together on our leader-
ship skills and team building - both the LC
team, and the entire TS team. There have
been a lot of changes in the meantime, but
we have always tried to work in a structured
and continuous way. The workshops taught
us that commitment and love working with
data are essential to what we do every day,
but without team growth and development
- it’s not enough for sustainability and the
quality of work.
VISION. PROFESSIONALISM. PUR-
POSE. PATIENCE. EFFICIENCY.
When you are part of a team adorned with
these values, motivation and productivity
come naturally. If we add learning from mis-
takes, freedom, responsibility, commitment
and the ability to face challenges in a crea-
tive and innovative way - things heat up, and
coming to work and entering the office looks
like entering the hive, as if you were a part of
a big bee colony.
It is not difficult to be proud of a team that
is always ready to go “extra mile”. Also, it is
not difficult to follow its step - with the pres-
ence of support, understanding and trust.
And that’s what I feel as a member of the
LC team at Things Solver every day when I
come to work. In a company of 22 people,
the energy flow cannot be stopped, and the
good atmosphere that is cooked in the LC
team easily spreads through the workspace
to other teams.
41
If I am to talk about that group of people
who, besides me, build up our LC team - the
first impression would be - how diverse our
interests are. This allows us to complement
each other and create a team that is ready
for a variety of challenges. The focus of the
LC team is to enable other solvers to ex-
press their creativity and take the initiative
in their daily work. The result is on the one
hand - learning from mistakes (which I am
especially glad to have in the environment
in which I work in), while on the other hand -
freedom, getting the best out of others and
growth, through the development of both
technical and soft skills .
Whether we work together on a high pri-
42
ority task, eat ice cream on the terrace or
participate together in a conference - I am
overwhelmed by a sense of belonging and
team spirit. What especially motivates me
is when I see how much everyone around
me works and gives - then I know that I am
among the right people. When you know
that if you need help - you will never be left
on your own, and that if you have a proposal
for improvement, it will be considered and
implemented - then you know that you are in
the right team. And when you know that you
are in the right team, you are fulfilled with
the feeling that there are no limits and that
everything is possible.
READ NOW
HOW TO INSPIRE
MOTIVATION AT
WORK
AMIR PELED, Enterprise Agile Coach,
Bucharest, Romania

focused. Without any apparent reason, I de-

cided to have a look at my hands in that imag-
inary world. To my surprise, the color of both
of my arms was purple glitter and around
them there was a radiant purple light. “Wick-
ed!” I thought to myself. “In contrast with my
favorite color… What does that mean?” All of
a sudden, a cute snake cartoon appeared
out of nowhere, offering me to take a bite
of an apple: “Jussst a sssmall bite. Tassste
it! Come on! Tassste it!”. I was hesitant.
Yet the snake insisted… What should I do?

The above paragraph depicts my person-

al experience during a Co-Active Coaching
I closed my eyes and concentrated on my
training, where the leaders from the front
breaths. Breathe in. Breathe out. I noticed
of the room facilitated an exercise for us
how my chest went up when I inhaled, and
to formulate our life-purpose statement.
how it went down when I exhaled. I was calm
As you will read later, it was an exhilarat-
and felt I was ready to explore the darkness
ing experience for me, since it provided me
and took a look around while my eyes were
with clarity, awareness of what is impor-
still closed. Believe me, there was absolutely
tant to me and the reasons behind my pur-
nothing there. Nothing! I was somewhat dis-
pose. It guides me in many aspects of my
appointed, yet I was determined to continue
life, such as the decisions I make, how I in-
seeking. I was patient, curious and stayed

44
teract with other people and the relation-
ships I build or decide to leave behind, for
instance. Since the outcome of the exercise
is so powerful, I’m glad I can serve better
the people in the organizations I work with
by offering them this exercise so that they
can create they own life purpose statement.
However, I bet you are familiar with the fol-
lowing scenario: you discover while working
with a new team that they struggle with find-
ing motivation. They have excuses, avoid
taking responsibility and procrastination
settles in. They are far from being satisfied
with their basic psychological needs, such
as having the freedom to decide for them-
selves how to do their day-to-day activities
(being micro-managed by their managers
instead), feeling no/ little pressure at work,
feeling free and safe to express their opin-
ions and ideas rather than being criticized,
feeling that people truly care about them
and fundamentally appreciate their contri-
bution, etc., to name a few. Unfortunately,
this pattern is not unique to a specific team,
department, organization, industry, or coun-
try. Rather, this is a global pattern.
The good news is that we
have many ways to tackle
demotivation at work.
1. ALLOCATE TIME TO DISCOVERY
Nowadays, many organizations still mainly
focus on delivery of projects without provid-
ing the time to their employees to learn new
ways of working. In many cases, the result is
similar to the image with the penguins: peo-
ple must learn new skills ad-hoc, having no
support, just to crush and being accused of
giving excuses rather than results.
Yet, smarter organizations
deliver small chunks of a
solution frequently, with the
purpose to learn by running
small experiments and
adapt their findings so they
can generate meaningful
outcomestotheircustomers.
Moreover, these organizations provide their
employees with some visible dedicated time
to reflect on the new learning, spread knowl-
edge throughout the organization, practice
new ways of working and ultimately, create
innovative solutions. They do it by working
on less initiatives, choosing which ones are
the most meaningful for their customers and
creating some room for people to learn and
think. Thus, in my opinion, allocating time to
discovery is an essential prerequisite for the
other tools to tackle demotivation at work I
will share with you.
45
2. COACHING LIFE PURPOSE 4. VISION / BIG DREAMS BOARD

The coach helps the clients clarify what
the internal experience of being on pur-
pose feels like. It may begin with reading
them several Guided Inner Journeys and
having the clients take notes between
each ones. Once they share what came
up for them, as I did in the opening of
this article, the coach help the clients to
put together words which express their
sense of the impact they have when they
are on purpose and create a life purpose
statement. Assist clients in identifying
their distinctive values and assessing
their satisfaction with living those princi-
ples that they hold to be of worth in their
life.
Ask your clients to take a flipchart pa-
per and add their life purpose statement
anywhere they wish. Next, your clients
can add their big dreams, values, imag-
es and some inspirational quotes they
can either find online or draw and write
by themselves. Placing the flipchart pa-
per next to their desk and viewing it on
daily basis gives your clients the boost
they may need to achieve their goals and
can prove extremely powerful. Do now
forget to check in and have conversation
around where do they stand in relation to
their big dream. It is perfectly fine if there
is anything they need to modify in their
vision board since it is no longer relevant
or outdated.

3. MINING VALUES

Offer to your clients the experience of

being in touch with and honoring their
values! For example, you may ask your
clients to identify a special, peak mo-
ment in their life when it was especially
fulfilling. Start probing, and listen under-
neath for values. Listen for energy level
and expand on each value that show up
in the story. Later on, your clients may
appreciate if you ask them to look for
places they may be taking a value to the
extreme or to point out that most upsets
derive from values that are being sup-
pressed.

All credits to Amir Peled

46
5. MOVING MOTIVATORS
An exercise developed by Jurgen Appe-
lo which is based on 10 intrinsic desires,
such as mastery, acceptance, status, re-
latedness, etc. My favorite way to play it
is with teams, where each team mem-
ber needs to sort the 10 intrinsic desire
cards (i.e., motivators) from left (least
important) to right (most important).
Next, the team members are invite to
take into consideration a change; for ex-
ample, their team lead leaves to another
organization. They need to discuss how
the change impacts their motivators and
move the cards up for a positive change
or down for a negative one. Finally, each
team member needs to share which mo-
tivators are the most important to them
and which are the least. By doing so, it
reveals new insights to the team mem-
bers about what drives each one of them
and helps to create stronger bonds and
foster closer relationships.
6. ENGAGEMENT SURVEY
One of the most famous engagement
survey comes from Gallup. It contains
12 simple questions and people are in-
vited to take the survey anonymously,
either online or onsite. The true value is,
however, when the manager discusses
the results with the respondents and ask
them for suggestions to improve work-
ing conditions. Allowing the employees
to generate ideas, as well as listening
carefully to what they say instead of
providing solutions ad-hoc, the manag-
ers show how they truly value their em-
ployees opinions. Lastly, the managers
need to check in with their employees
on regular basis and demonstrate that
improvement actions are indeed being
taken. move the cards up for a positive
change or down for a negative one. Fi-
nally, each team member needs to share
which motivators are the most impor-
tant to them and which are the least. By
doing so, it reveals new insights to the
team members about what drives each
one of them and helps to create stronger
bonds and foster closer relationships.
Otherwise, people may become
even more disengaged, since the
manager’s lack of action may be
interpreted as if “My manager
does not care about me”.
Let me conclude by going back to the story
I started the article with: the life-purpose
exercise. You may recall that I closed my
eyes and a snake begged me to taste
from an apple. “I must be in heaven!”, I
thought to myself. I knew the story from
the bible and the consequences of eating
from a forbidden fruit, yet I was convinced
that in this exercise, the snake had a dif-
ferent meaning and there was a twist to
the original story. I decided to risk, fol-
lowed the snake’s advice and took a bite
from the apple. It was juicy. It had great
flavors. It was delicious. I wanted more!
I needed more… And I couldn’t stop eat-
ing. Later I realized the apple symbolized
learning opportunities. And my life pur-
pose became the meaning of my name in
Hebrew: a cart full of goodness, which I
am glad to offer to others in their journey
of learning. What is your life-purpose
statement?
47
 For me, motivation is the intersection of purpose,
urgency, and ability. It is the magical moment
when I am in flow, in service to something greater
than myself, and I have what I need to make a dif-
ference. Motivation does not come from rewards or
punishments, but from within. Only I can commit
to purpose, feel urgency, and assess and increase
my ability.

MELISSA BOGGS, Co-CEO/Chief ScrumMaster | Agility,

Culture, & Leadership Coach | Certified Enterprise Coach |
MBA, Denver, Colorado

For me, motivation is inter-

nal drive that helps me reach
the state of flow where De-
sire and Will create together
and make things happen.

DRAGANA STOJANOVIĆ, People/HR Processes Manager

at Air Serbia, Serbia
 The greatest motivation for everything in my life is my
family. At the same time, they are my source of inspiration
and strength, too.
In business, top motivators are the best results of my team,
where I act as a sponsor and catalyst and support for inno-
vation and creativity.
The successes of people I mentored and supported in their
personal and professional development always makes me
very proud and motivates me to continue to strive towards
higher purpose and goals. The fact that all my colleagues
that I worked with and supported in their personal growth
are in top positions in their companies is a confirmation of
success, and that, on its own, makes me very pleased and
gets me going every day.

BOJANA VASILJEVIĆ, East Europe HR Director

(Czechia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia, Serbia,
Ukraine) at NCR Corporation, Serbia
MOTIVATING AGILE
TEAMS
BOB GALEN, Principal Agile Coach at Vaco,
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area, the USA
Someone approached me the other day for
some coaching advice. It seems that they’re
in a Coach / Scrum Master role and have a
team that, well, isn’t doing very well.
They’re pushing back on the use of agile
approaches—seeming to be going through
the motions of Scrum. They’re not deliver-
ing much in the way of value. And, to use his
words, they’re simply not motivated.
Which was his question—“How do I motivate
50
this team?”
Certainly, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard
this question and it certainly won’t be the
last. My first thought though was—you
don’t motivate a team; they have to motivate
themselves. But, as I answered the question,
I thought of the following as a Motivation
Continuum for today’s teams—
FIRST, THERE WERE “CARROTS &
STICKS”
You know how this goes. You motivate with
rewards for “good work” and penalties for
“bad work”. The hope here is that the “Car-
rots” outweigh the sticks and the team is
motivated. It’s what Dan Pink refers to as
Type X behavior or extrinsic motivation.
NEXT, A FOCUS ON INTRINSIC MO-
TIVATION
Dan Pink explored this in his TedX talk and
subsequent book. Here we try to - give peo-
ple control over their work (autonomy), pro-
vide opportunities for challenge (mastery),
and align their work to something meaning-
ful (purpose). He refers to this as Type I or
intrinsic motivation.
This is much more powerful in that it con-
nects the individual to the motivation. Con-
sider it an inside-out approach.
FINALLY, SETTING THE CONDI-
TIONS FOR MOTIVATION
Beyond, extrinsic versus intrinsic, my mind
goes to how leaders (leader roles, Scrum
Masters, and Coaches) influence without
doing anything to the individual. I guess
what I’m saying is how we show up can cre-
ate a motivational ecosystem for the team.
One that encourages. Inspires, and moti-
vates teams to do great things.
The mindset shift
Now, how can you create the conditions
for being motivated? For example:
• You can inspire them by your own ac-
tions; walking your own talk, principles,
and ethics.
• You can energize them by giving them
meaningful and valuable work to do.
Valuable for your clients, your business,
and for them personally.
• You can give them confidence by en-
suring they have the skills to do what
you’ve asked them to do.
• You can ensure there is sufficient safe-
ty for them to experiment, learn, and

moves from doing grow. To be able to challenge the sta-

tus quo, speak truth to power, and show
something to a team vulnerability.

or individuals in • You can help to align them towards

order for them to be being a well-rounded, x-functional,

motivated to creating healthy, and diverse teams.

the space for them • You can give them space for creatively

to naturally become and innovatively solving their/your cus-

tomer problems.
motivated.
Are a few that come to mind. I hope that
you’re getting a sense for the actions that
can be taken to create the ecosystem I’m
envisioning.

51
SHOWING UP
I wanted to explore another aspect of creat-
ing space for teams to be motivated. Properly
showing up can be a challenge for a leader.
That is, showing up each and every day with
the energy, positivity, attitude, and passion
that becomes infectious with your teams and
across your organization. But it’s one of the
most powerful tools in your arsenal for moti-
vating your teams.
I couched it under walking your talk, but that
overused phrase does it a disservice.
If they’ve been running too
fast, enter with calmness
and thoughtfulness.
Run some experiments around the ideas I’ve
shared and see if team motivation chang-
es by changing the conditions around the
team. And please, try to stop viewing moti-
vation as something we DO to others.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob Galen

One of the keys I’ve found is becoming more

intentional with how you enter spaces. For
example, each morning before you enter the
day, get quiet and envision how you will be
entering your organization. Very intentionally.

Ask yourself, what does the

organization and my teams
need from me today? Then
quietly center and put on
the meta-skills to deliver
that need to the team. If
they’ve been flat, enter
with passion and energy. If
they’ve been struggling to
solve a problem, enter with
curiosity and perseverance.

52
53
 Motivation is when you wake up in the morning, get up
from bed, and you are happy, because you have an op-
portunity to live this day. I am thankful for everything God
gave me, and to my family who raised me. I am working on
myself, and every day, with the smile on my face, I wish to give
more to others, especially people I love, to make them laugh,
to spend more time together at breathtaking places, to sur-
prise the people I love, tell them how much they mean to
me and to say how important, to me, they are. To help them
when it’s hard, as real friend needs to be support every time.

VESNA DAMNJANOVIĆ, Founder and Managing

Director of BBICC, Serbia

Motivation is what makes us get up every morning

smiling, knowing that we are right where we need to
be and that everything we do has a deeper meaning. I
love people and life, and that love is what drives and mo-
tivates me, both privately and professionaly. I was lucky to
grow up in a loving family, adopt that principle very early
and build my own family and the entore culture of the
company I run today upon it. I deeply believe that only
people who are emotionally connected can provide
outstanding achievements in all fields.

DEJAN TURK, CEO at A1 Slovenia & VIP mobile,

Slovenia
 For me motivation is the state of
mental or emotional “thirst” that
you quench by doing something that
requires an effort. When you desire
something that you can achieve it is
called happiness.

ROMINA IVANČIĆ, Sales Director Croatia at The HEINEKEN

Company, Croatia

For me, motivation is …

…a steady warm wind in my back.
…riding downhill with friends and an awesome
view.
…swaying between excitement and relaxation
while they get closer to each other until I’m
relaxed and excited at the same time.

OLAF LEWITZ, Remote Work Pioneer. Trust Artist. Lover.

Leadership Coach. Founder of TrustTemenos Academy,
Berlin Area, Germany
BEHIND ALL
MOTIVATION
IS DESIRE
MICHAEL DOYLE, Speaker, Author & Coach,
London, Ontario, Canada

56
I love the topic of motivation as I am fas-
cinated with human potential, peak per-
formance and what really drives us in life.
Everything we experience and give value to
is simply an expression of our beliefs, par-
adigms, thinking, and habitual habits. You
can easily find videos or articles that will
say motivation sucks and is overrated. On
the flip side there are those who say being
motivated is the holy grail of achieving an-
ything. In this article I feel to simply share
what my experience has been and trust you
will receive from this, what resonates and is
true for you.
I believe that anytime we make a positive
change, it is sparked primarily by a moment
of “Clarity.” This usually generates new en-
ergy and motivation within is us to take ac-
tion on this new realization. I always say,
“Motivation gets us started,
but habits sustain that
momentum.”
It has been my experience that motivation
is something we must generate to ignite the
initial momentum towards a new endeavor.
I personally love the energy and feelings as-
sociated with motivation as it sparks possi-
bility, imagination, and ultimately a new be-
lief which is the main determining factor as
to whether you will see things through.
As a speaker I often give motivational talks
all about how to manage fear and the pow-
er of our belief. As much as I love getting a
room full of people hyped and jumping up
and down to loud music saying “I Am Pow-
erful,” I know many will go home and within
a few days are back into their habitual rou-
tine. Having said this, all is not lost because
often there are people who experience ener-
getic shifts during the talk. This shift is what
is needed to break the previous cycle of their
unconscious habitual habits, thinking and
behavior. As Albert Einstein eloquently put
it, “We can’t solve problems by using the
same kind of thinking we used when we cre-
ated them.”
As we further develop our
self-awareness or meta-
cognition, we should really
assess what our intrinsic
and extrinsic drivers are
when we are in the energy of
motivation.
You see when we seek clarity consistently, it
will lead to your “why.” Knowing your “why”
is key, as you will have a much stronger
chance of steering the course and taking
consistent action even when the motivation
itself may not always be present. Behind all
motivation I believe is Desire.
The topic of motivation is very dynamic,
and I feel to touch on many of the areas and
energies associated with its multiple driv-
ers. Clarity and Desire help us ensure that
we can set a powerful and aligned intention
behind the goals we set and the things we
seek. I fully believe that whatever your soul
is seeking, is seeking you. We are either ex-
panding or contracting and energy cannot
57
be created or destroyed but is always mov-
ing and changing based on the focus and
actions that are taken. Often when we are
lacking motivation it is simply because we
are not learning anything new.

Learning and expanding

is a great way to spark
motivation.
Brendon Burchard teaches that ambition
and expectancy are the two drivers of mo-
tivation and I fully agree that these are key
activators. I do feel there are more moving
pieces as I previously mentioned like clarity,
intention, belief, and desire. They all play a
role in creating and sustaining motivation.
Another key area I have experienced to be a
great motivator is goal setting.

Once you have clarity, desire,

intention, and belief it is key
you start to take action. If
you do not have a target you
will miss every time, so set
your sights on your goals.
Then start to break them into natural mini
goals or separate projects that will fuel the
bigger vision. So why am I writing about goal
setting in an article about motivation? We
are all wired to love the feeling of comple-
tion. When we have a strategy for our vision
with goals and actions steps to take, we get
to feel completion all along the journey of
working towards our goals and vision. De-
velop habits to sustain your motivation.

58
 Motivation is for me a very individual and personal set of
stimuli. I am an introvert, which means that most of my val-
ues tend to be intrinsic. So, a sense of mission, doing a great
job, being useful, creative and innovative, but above all, being
happy with my immediate environment and feeling accepted
and respected. That is the button(s) to press with me...
On the other side, it’s the openness to learning that is a con-
stant motivational goal, because the more new things I know,
the more new and diverse solutions I can create. The more
problems I can solve, more quickly. Personal growth and wis-
dom, that is the key for me. Money and status just follow nat-
urally, as there’s never been enough capable and creative peo-
ple around, anywhere.

LAZAR DZAMIC, Xoogler, Author, Content & Digital

Storytelling Trainer, Serbia
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company is?
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THE PURPOSE OF
LEADERSHIP IS A
MOTIVATED TEAM
SRĐAN PAVLOVIĆ, Founder and CEO Coaching Expert Team,
Belgrade, Serbia

62
Today, more than ever, almost everything is
within our reach. The world we live in has
pretty much “spoiled” us, setting our expec-
tations that we can get everything now and
immediately.
In such conditions, it is simply impossi-
ble not to be motivated. A daily dose of
motivation arrives in your mail regular-
ly, Youtube is full of short (and longer)
videos that will energize you for the day
ahead. On the desktop you have a back-
ground with a motivating image, and your
phone rings in the rhythm of the melody
“Eye of the tiger”. All that and much more.
But why are then so many people disen-
gaged by work and the work environment?
Just when we thought there was something
good about working from home, by force
of circumstance due to a global pandemic,
we were missing something again. Working
from home, once so desirable, has become a
burden for both the employee and his family.
Now we come to the conclusion that moti-
vation does not depend so much on the in-
spiring environment, for example, some IT
companies with a lotus flower in the foun-
tain in front of you and the chirping of birds
from the Amazon forests that designers “in-
stalled” on a real baobab tree in the kitchen.
It doesn’t depend on the motivating mes-
sages they wrote on the wall in front of you,
especially if it says “Innovate or die!”. And
working from home could be a little more in-
spiring.
People need to be our focus.
How our colleagues and
leaders who lead us will
determine our mood that
day, and many days ahead of
us. Leaders therefore have a
great responsibility for the
people they lead.
Whether it is “flat” management in agile-ori-
ented companies or deep “vertical” manage-
ment in traditional companies, leaders are
always needed. Leaders are real catalysts
for change and the best ones to convey the
message of the manager. In companies that
really live the idea of “people first”, leaders
are often the ones who convey the messag-
es of the first lines to the company’s man-
agement. In that way, everyone grows, both
the company and the people who stay in it.
I intentionally said that they stay, because
they are present with their whole being, and
work is only a product of this philosophy,
which gives much better results.
63
Agile leadership is based on
agile principles and values.
When we look at these
principles through the prism
of motivation and inspiration,
we get a different picture.
The agile way of thinking is
known for that, because it is
constantly looking for new
insights and knowledge.
64
“Lead yourself first”, as one of the principles,
through the prism of motivation would mean
that the leader should first understand and
motivate himself, in order to motivate others.
“Practice what you preach” is more than a
clear message to your team members, I be-
lieve in what I say, I am motivated to moti-
vate you.
“Inspire others to grow” requires leaders
to create a secure environment in which
all team members are free to make mis-
takes and learn from those mistakes.
And we could list and interpret all agile lead-
ership principles like this, but at this point
one logical question should be asked: “And
why are these only agile leadership princi-
ples, why are they not LEADERSHIP princi-
ples?”. Why do we feel that leaders who lead
people in a traditional management envi-
ronment cannot live up to these values?
From my experience, they absolutely can
and they do. Many “modern” companies
may have teams led by leaders in a very tra-
ditional way, and some “traditional” ones
may have individual leaders living agile prin-
ciples without even knowing about them.
And once again we come to leaders and
their understanding of leadership. Both “ag-
ile” and “traditional” leaders. Both can cre-
ate a safe environment, where everyone is
equal, where people are respected and val-
ued, and such people are easy to motivate.
They get up with a smile on their face and
go to work. That is why it is easy to motivate
people if we treat them as equals and capa-
ble of moving mountains. And if necessary,
they will move them for their team.
65
 For me motivation is the key force needed
for change, personal and organizational ad-
vancement. Lack of motivation will consume
lots of time and energy for just a fraction of
achievement and can lead to other organiza-
tional and business problems. Good leader-
ship motivates employees to eventually inter-
nalize with organizational goals and express
their most creative and productive side in ad-
dressing challenges and finding solutions.

NATALI DELIĆ, Shaping future with new technolo-

gies, Belgrade, Serbia
 For me, motivation is inside force provoked by
external circumstances, people and environment,
that makes me go to the new level... Let me give you
one example: just recently my company offered in-
credible opportunity to all employees to gain EY Tech
MBA for free. Although I am not a tech person and
although it requires around 300 hours of learning +
even more time to gain experiences and contribu-
tions, I am already fully into it, making my firs steps...

SONJA JOVANOVIC, HR Associate Director at EY - CESA

Organizational Development team, Serbia
EDUCATION IS (NOT) ON
THE BREAK: FACTS THAT
MATTER
AGILE SERBIA
Many of us think that education is in relation
to schooling. You have predefined programs,
subjects, lectures and knowledge that will be
changeless. Someone once said that educa-
tion represents process of cultivating hopeful
environments and relationships for learning.
With an emphasis on the word process. It’s nev-
er-ending. No matter where we live, what we do
or where we’re going to be. Education presents
a vital role in the quality of life and each country
has its own exclusive approach.
Do you know that over 40 years,
equitable access to quality
education can help a country raise
its gross domestic product per
capita by 23%?
Also, over the years, there’s a high demand for
specific but the most-wanted vocations be-
cause of its benefits.
BIG, BIGGER, THE BIGGEST
Someone would say that Agile represents a
unique approach, others think that’s a method-
ology. Still, it’s widespread and used for a very
long time. Scrum framework is one of Agile ways
to manage a project and generally speaking –
businesses across the whole world. At first and
maybe to understand better, we can say that
Agility refers to how fast we adequately respond
to market challenges and should be viewed as
68
an overall mindset, as company culture and way
of working. People always ask: why is Agility im-
portant? Market characteristics have changed
and this trend of changes will continue.
Today, we have turbulent, highly
competitive, and hard predictable
markets, consumers with
higher expectations, trends of
globalization and digitalization,
environments where innovation is
a must, and employees who require
more attention because human
potential is the most valuable factor
in business.
Management 3.0, Agile These Days, Scrum
Framework, Scrum@Scale Framework, and
Change of Managements are some of crucial
aspects for understanding Agile way of life. Did
you know that 81% Scrum Masters in the world
(according to SM Trends Report 2019) are us-
ing Scrum with other agile practices, ie. Kanban,
Scrumban, XP?
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF AGILE
WAY OF WORKING?
To achieve some level of agility,
you need to invest in process
improvement and change the
mindset and way of working. Before We all agree in one – everything started with Ag-
ile and since its beginning Agile Serbia has been
you start, you should be aware of
constantly growing, relying on Agile and all the
what that way of working brings to benefits of this approach. Over the years, Agile
you, of course, you have to see the Serbia has built credibility and strong relation-
purpose. ship within its community, by delivering excel-
lent results in Agile education and support. And
Higher productivity and innovation based on
yes, Agile is the present and the future, business
increased motivation of employees, reduced
reality with many benefits. Learning while listen-
risks in unpredictable and complex business
ing is more productive when you adopt new use-
environments, and better collaboration where
ful insights. So, what’s your plans for 7th & 8th
employees can find the most productive way of
December 2020? From Angel Medinilla, Alistair
completing tasks are just small parts of benefits
Cockburn, Jurgen Appelo, and many more su-
in this Agile puzzle. So, you ask, what is the big-
perstars you’ll learn everything you wanna
gest benefit of Agile mindset at the end? We will
know about Agility. Where? On the upcoming
say that Agility doesn’t have an end and point
Agile Serbia Conference: All-Stars Edition 2020.
because with this mindset and way of working
This online ceremony will be held thanks to app
you will continuously make improvements and
MatchAbout, an easy way for networking from
keep going forward.
event to event and between, without any limits.

THE LIFE ACCORDING TO AGILE The choice is yours – you can wait to see what
will happen or you can be prepared and wel-
If you want to survive nowadays, especially the
come the change!
future, think about how flexible and adaptive
you or your organization is – could you continue
with the present or even better with the next big
JOIN US
market change(s)?

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Development

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