Molecular Cell
G
a l
c a
e c
goal is to provide people with the condi-
without coercion or compulsion. Such
ably daunting, as a beginning student
The best part is that going slowly allowed
group care about you and your project.
meeting is devoted to nonscience. Thismany experiments, here is an illustrative
example: People are given interesting
mechanical puzzles to solve. Group A
assigned. I have since been careful to
gradually build competence and confi-
dence for new group members, with the
long term, gains from increased motiva-
tion more than make up for any losses. I
begin by asking who is not here today,is given a dollar for solving each puz-
zle; Group B is not. After 30 min, the
help of more experienced members,
clearly stating the purpose at each step.
so that we feel a sense of responsibility
for each other, contacting people whobehavior shows high performance, is
enjoyable, and enhances innovation. Of
us the time to find a different and much
more interesting project than the one I first
at first may seem to eliminate one quarter
of the time for talking science, but in thetions that enhance their natural self-moti-
vated behavior. Here, I discuss simple
principles that are useful for building
a highly motivated research group.
The psychologists Deci and Ryan have,
since the 1970s, studied conditions
that enable self-determined behavior:
behavior that is experienced with a full
sense of choice, of doing what one wants,
who had never even grown bacteria in
a test tube. After a short while, I sensed
the drop in motivation.
We started over: first grow bacteria in
a test tube. Good. Now do a growth curve.
Good. Now do it again and estimate the
day-day error. Good. Easy steps allowed
positive reinforcement. As his confidence
increased, his motivation skyrocketed.
The need for connectedness encom-
passes the striving to care for others, to
feel that others relate to you in mutually
supportive ways, and to feel a satisfying
involvement with the social world (and
the scientific world) more generally.
I make our weekly group meeting an
event that enhances social connected-
ness. The first half hour of the two hourForum
How to Build a Mo
Uri Alon
1,
*
1
Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizm
*Correspondence: urialon@weizmann.ac.il
DOI 10.1016/j.molcel.2010.01.011
Motivated group members experien
high performance, is enjoyable, and
vated research group.
Most students begin graduate school or
a postdoc full of passion for science.
They are given the resources to devote
themselves to solving fascinating puzzles.
Why is it, then, that in some groups
students thrive, can’t wait to come to the
lab in the morning, can’t stop thinking
about their projects, and feel a sense of
personal and intellectual growth, whereas
in the lab next door, students after two
years are depressed, unmotivated, and,
by the end, are loath to even look at their
own papers?
We all want to work with motivated
students and keep ourselves motivated.
But how? We are never taught about
motivation or about most other essential
topics related to the emotional and
subjective aspects of being a scientist. A
common implicit assumption is that moti-
vation is the sole responsibility of the
student: either you have it or you don’t.
This can lead researchers to blame group
members for their lack of motivation.
However, research in psychology has
begun to demystify motivation and can
offer useful concepts for scientists. Thetivated Research
nn Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israe
e a full sense of choice: of doing wh
nhances innovation. This essay des
researchers tell the groups that the exper-
iment is done. It was found that Group A
puts the puzzles down, whereas Group
B keeps playing with them on their own
time. The surprise was that money and
other rewards in these types of tasks
apparently act to reduce motivation.
What makes people motivated?
Deci and Ryan found three conditions
for self-determined behavior: compe-
tence, autonomy, and social connected-
ness. I’ll now describe how these
concepts are useful in the context of
research groups.
Competence is a prerequisite for moti-
vation. Peak performance—called ‘‘flow’’
in psychology—is achieved at interme-
diate difficulty of tasks: not too easy and
not impossible. To demonstrate how
advisers could go wrong, here is a mistake
I made with my first graduate student. For
his first project, I suggested that he rewire
a commercial fluorimeter to oscillate its
temperature control and see how bacte-
rial growth is affected. This seemed
reasonable to me coming fully charged
from my postdoc, but for him was justifi-Molecular Cell 37roup
t one wants. Such behavior shows
ribes principles of building a moti-
In addition to competence, autonomy is
essential for motivation. Autonomy is the
sense that the project emanates from
the person and not from an external
source. Using threats or punishment
tends to decrease autonomy. One can
also decrease autonomy in more subtle
ways. One graduate student told me: ‘‘I
have a question, but before I tell you,
please promise not to solve it immediately
by yourself—I want time to think about it.’’
I realized that as experienced scientists,
who see several steps ahead, we need
to be mindful of sometimes letting
students figure things out for themselves.
Autonomy is related to the amount of
structure (instructions from the mentor):
autonomy is optimal at intermediate
structure, between the extremes of micro-
management and neglect. The optimal
point is specific to each individual and
changes over time because experienced
group members need less structure. You
thus need to determine and adjust this
point together.
The third strand of motivation is social
connectedness: having someone in the, January 29, 2010 ª2010 Elsevier Inc. 151