If you’re leading a change project in your team or organisation, sustaining motivation through the ‘messy middle’ can be a real challenge. This is often where positive progress comes undone.
PRINCIPLE 5: DOPAMINE & MOTIVATION
Dopamine is often misunderstood as a “pleasure chemical.” In fact, it is best understood as a motivation and learning signal. It helps the brain prioritise actions by signalling expected value and reinforcing behaviours that lead to desirable outcomes.
Dopamine release is particularly sensitive to progress, reward, and ‘positive prediction errors’ – when things go better than expected. Small wins, fast feedback, and visible movement increase energy and persistence during change. Conversely, when progress is invisible or delayed, motivation drops.
An elegant experiment by Nunes and Drèze (2006) brought this to life with loyalty cards. One group received a 10-stamp card with 2 stamps already filled in. The other received an empty 8-stamp card. Both groups had exactly the same work to do. Yet the first group completed their cards at nearly double the rate. The only difference? A sense of progress already underway.
The dopamine system is also social. Social recognition activates the same reward circuitry as monetary reward (Izuma et al., 2008), which means public acknowledgment of effort and progress is a powerful, and free, motivational lever.
THE BOTTOM LINE
People don’t stay engaged because the goal is important. They do so because progress is detectable. Make progress visible, and recognise it publicly.
WHAT TO DO
1) Make progress visible and frequent, and provide immediate recognition.
Use visible metrics, dashboards, or “before and after” demonstrations so people can see movement. Combine this with immediate, specific recognition: “I noticed you used the new process for that client request – that’s exactly the behaviour we need.”
2) Break large change projects into sequential milestones.
The brain releases dopamine in response to progress, not just completion. Design meaningful milestones that provide frequent progress signals.
3) Define success upfront with leading and lagging indicators.
Establish baselines and track both behavioural adoption (leading) and business outcomes (lagging). This clarifies what “winning” looks like.
4) Design rapid feedback loops.
Ensure people quickly see results of their efforts through metrics, customer responses, system outputs, or peer feedback. The motivational loop — behaviour → outcome → dopamine — must remain active.
5) Recognise individuals and teams publicly.
Social recognition triggers dopamine release in both the person being recognised and observers. Make celebrations specific, authentic, and proportionate.
6) Recognise behaviours as well as results.
Especially early in a change, people need reinforcement for trying new approaches — not just for hitting targets. This connects dopamine directly to desired behaviours.
DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS
- What visible progress will people experience this month?
- Who is being recognised, and what behaviour is being reinforced?
- Is recognition immediate and specific, and made publicly?
- Are there rapid feedback loops in place, and proximate goal lines?
- Are we measuring behaviours and learning, or only long-term outcomes?
RED FLAGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
🚩Motivation declining steadily rather than building momentum
🚩 People can’t identify any tangible progress months into the change project
🚩 Early wins are dismissed as “not real progress” with no defence from leadership
🚩 Recognition is generic and infrequent, e.g., “great work everyone”, rather than specific acknowledgment
🚩 No public recogniton of progress, only private
🚩 The gap between the current state and the future state feels impossibly large with no intermediate milestones
YOUR TURN:
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How will you apply these insights to increase motivation in your team this week?
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What other reflections has this prompted?
