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Key points
- Universal human needs related to flourishing include Contribution/Calling, Choice/Control, Competence/Capability, and Connection/Community.
- Sometimes we behave in ways that seem to ignore, or even undermine, satisfaction of these universal human needs.
- The state of mental flow is another important concept to consider with regard to job satisfaction.
- The task completion bias motivates us to prioritize quick, simple tasks, even though doing so may undermine longer-lasting work satisfaction.
In a previous post, I focused on the “Big 4” universal human needs or motivations as they related to job satisfaction. These Big 4 are 1) Contribution or Calling, 2) Choice or Control, 3) Competence or Capability, and 4) Connection or Community.
The idea is that this list might be useful for explaining our relative satisfaction with our job. To what extent are we able to satisfy each of these needs through our work? Readers of the previous post raised several good questions, revealing that things are not always so simple when it comes to explaining human behavior.
Some readers noted what they perceive as generational differences, such that younger employees don’t seem as invested in Contribution or Calling, in that investment in the organization or its goals may be lacking. As noted in the original post, the rank ordering of the importance of these four needs varies by individual, and by extension, there may indeed be generational differences shaped by cultural shifts and people’s overall experiences. So one possibility, for example, is that younger workers are less likely to equate personal meaning or purpose to their contribution to the organization’s profits or growth. Instead they may seek satisfaction of Contribution or Calling away from their paid job or may value other needs as more important at work.
Related to observations about possible differences between generations, some readers noted that video games are immensely popular (addictive?) and wondered why, since such activity does not contribute to meeting the need for Contribution or Calling. Notice, however, that a challenging video game may effectively satisfy the need for Competence or Capability to the extent that the player is succeeding and reaching new levels of performance. And video games are voluntary (Choice and Control) and frequently played with like-minded others with shared interests and insider status (Connection or Community).
The State of Flow
A successful video game is engrossing in that it is challenging but not so much so that the player feels overwhelmed or continually frustrated. This quality is just what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly meant when he coined the term “Flow.” He found that activities are inherently motivating when they require our full attention and concentration, we make incremental progress toward success, and we get positive feedback along the way.
Csikszentmihaly found that more frequent Flow experiences were related to being happier overall. Perhaps this is because Flow-inducing activities, such as playing video games, tick the box for one or more of the Big 4 universal needs. Also, although video games are not necessarily meeting the need for Contribution or Calling in the larger sense of connection to a goal that benefits others, video games are goal-directed, and thus feel meaningful or purposeful in an immediate sense.
Lastly, some readers noted that we frequently (too frequently?) engage in tasks at work that are relatively trivial and don’t seem to contribute to satisfaction of any of the Big 4 universal human needs. These tasks might include responding to email messages and performing minor clerical tasks. Here, however, another psychological concept may be at play: task completion bias.
Task Completion Bias
One inherent feature of the human mind is that we tend to experience incomplete tasks as less satisfying than completed ones. It seems like I’m simply stating the obvious, but why would it be a given that we prefer completed tasks? We can imagine reasons why our distant ancestors who possessed this preference were more successful and thus we have inherited the “bias” as a feature of our brain’s software. But for now, let’s focus on the implications of the task completion bias at work.
Because of the task completion bias, we tend to be motivated to prioritize those tasks that are more easily checked off our to-do list. We may rationalize that these tasks have to be done sometime (so why not now?) or will not take that much time. The potential problem, though, is that more complex or time-consuming tasks may not receive the timely attention they deserve, and it is likely these tasks that contribute most to our experience of Flow and satisfaction of some of the Big 4 universal needs.
How Can I Use This?
In addition to the original question of how our work contributes to satisfying the Big 4 universal human needs, we now have a few more questions to ask ourselves. How frequently does your work allow you to experience Flow? Are there ways you can become more engaged and challenged at work for the reason of experiencing more Flow? In what ways does task completion bias play out in your daily behavior? Are you missing opportunities for greater achievement and job satisfaction as a result?
In the end, like all forms of professional development, it starts with knowledge and awareness, of both yourself and psychological principles. The necessary next step is intentionality in examining your behavior and attempting to change it. Are you up for the challenge?
