Motivation Mosaic Personal Drivers Exercise

Purpose

This exercise helps delegates identify and reflect on their personal motivators, both intrinsic and extrinsic. They get to visualise them and recognise which ones are currently underused. This self-awareness supports intentional action and greater alignment with meaningful work. Ideal for courses on motivation, self-awareness and personal development. Encourage delegates to reflect not only on what motivates them, but also how visible and supported those motivators are in their current work environment. This exercise can surface misalignments gently and constructively.

Objective

Delegates will create a personal visual ‘mosaic’ of motivators using colours or shapes to represent each one, then identify which are currently active and which are dormant. They will end the exercise by committing to a small, realistic action to activate one dormant motivator in the week ahead.

What You Need

• Coloured sticky notes (or sticky shapes if preferred)
• A3 sheets
• Large sheets of flipchart paper, whiteboards or digital collaboration boards.

Setup

• Seat delegates in small groups of 2 or 3. Ensure each delegate has a space to create their own visual mosaic.
• Distribute sticky notes in a variety of colours or shapes to each delegate. Alternatively, let them assign their own meanings to the colours.
• Begin with a short prompt: “What motivates you to work, to grow to show up with energy?”
• Ask delegates to silently brainstorm about 10 personal motivators and write them on A3 papers, spaced out, such as:

Autonomy	Contribution	Curiosity
Mastery	Recognition	Financial Gain
Approval	Purpose	Belonging
Security	Challenge	Novelty
Creativity	Competition	Growth

• Allocate 3 minutes for this.
• Once they have their list, ask them to assign a colour or shape to each motivator. For example, yellow might represent purpose, green could be autonomy. Let them choose what resonates. They should just place a coloured sticky notes next to their motivator. They can rearrange and change their minds as needed. Digital solutions are of course more ideal for this as the process of reorganisation and recategorisation are easier to handle.
• Next, ask them to write the motivator on the respective coloured sticky note, so they can move it around.
• Have delegates build a ‘mosaic’ using their sticky notes or shapes by arranging their motivators on a board or blank sheet. They can cluster by type, intensity or simply arrange them visually. The colour coding in entirely up to them and they can assign meaning to their own colours.
• Allocate 4 minutes for this categorisation.
• In their small groups, get them to take turns sharing:

Which motivators are most active in their current work/life?

Which ones feel dormant or neglected?

Are there any surprises or conflicts between motivators?

• Finally, get each person to pick one dormant motivator and write a concrete action they will take in the next 7 days to bring it into play. For example:

Dormant motivator: Mastery → Action: Sign up for a short online course.

Dormant motivator: Recognition → Action: Share a recent achievement with my team.

• Allocate 10 min for sharing and actions.
• Ask delegates to write this action on a different-coloured sticky note and place it on their mosaic as a visible commitment.
• Follow with a discussion.

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes

Activity: 3 min Idea Generation + 4 min Categorisation + 10 min Sharing & Actions = 17 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes

Discussion

• Which motivators did you find yourself relying on most often? Why?
• Were any of your motivators surprising or unexpected?
• How might activating a dormant motivator change your engagement or energy at work?
• How can we support each other in honouring our motivators more consciously?

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