Designing Motivating Champions Programs: Insights from Research
- Carsten Tams
- May 15
- 5 min read
My last post summarized insights from Champions Program leaders on how to design experiences that generate participant motivation and engagement. Many of these practitioner insights closely overlap with findings from a rich body of research on motivation.
Below are five research-backed principles that can help Champions Program leaders design more motivating and engaging program experiences.
1. Prioritize Intrinsic Motivation
What Research Shows
Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan), one of the most widely cited and empirically supported frameworks in modern motivational psychology, distinguishes between intrinsic motivation (“I do this because I genuinely care about it”) and extrinsic motivation (“I do this because of pressure or rewards”).
Champions are more likely to feel motivated and engaged when the program experience provides:
Sense of Autonomy: Champions feel agency, choice, and ownership in how they contribute.
Sense of Competence: Champions feel they have capabilities, experience learning and growth, and gradually build confidence and mastery in their role.
Sense of Relatedness: Champions feel connected to others through mutual care, support, contribution, and shared purpose.
When Champions experience these forms of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, they are far more likely to engage actively, contribute meaningfully, and sustain motivation over time. No amount of giveaways or branded merchandise can compensate for a program experience that lacks meaning, autonomy, growth, or community.
Practical Implications for Program Design
Autonomy: Look for opportunities to give Champions meaningful choice and ownership in how they contribute, for example by allowing them to personalize aspects of their role.
Competence: Create ongoing opportunities for Champions to learn, grow, and build confidence, for example through learning sessions that support both their Champion role and broader professional development.
Relatedness: Strengthen peer connection and community through regular opportunities for mutual support and exchange, for example through learning circles, local chapters, peer coaching, or alumni networks.
2. Use Recognition as Appreciation, Not Enticement
What Research Shows
Research shows that incentives can unintentionally weaken instead of strengthen motivation when they are perceived as overly controlling or transactional. When Champions feel “I do this for the reward” rather than “I do this because it matters,” engagement becomes less genuine and durable.
Research on Motivational Crowding and the Overjustification Effect shows that transactional incentives (“You get that if you do this.”) can undermine existing intrinsic motivation and replace it with a more externally driven form of motivation. Behavioral research on Money Priming similarly suggests that overly transactional framing can shift people's focus from a pro-social (“How can I contribute?”) toward a more self-interested mindsets (“What is in it for me?”).
In terms of promoting intrinsic motivation, recognition and rewards work best when they function as expressions of appreciation and acknowledgment, rather than as upfront conditional enticements for participation.
Practical Implications for Program Design
Design the program as purpose-driven and contribution-oriented, rather than positioning rewards or giveaways as primary motivators for participation.
Express appreciation personally and thoughtfully. A thank-you message from leadership, an invitation to lunch, or a thoughtful conversation can often feel more meaningful than generic giveaways.
Use social gatherings as opportunities to recognize meaningful contributions and visible impact, highlighting how Champions have supported colleagues or strengthened ethical culture.
When using gifts, swag, or other tokens, avoid framing them upfront as conditional incentives ("You will get X if you do Y"), for example by announcing that Champions will receive rewards for meeting participation targets. Rather than transactional rewards, present them as genuine expressions of appreciation and community belonging.
Avoid excessive monitoring, rigid participation quotas, or overly controlling participation enforcement, as these can weaken ownership and intrinsic motivation.
3. Use Social Proof to Support Motivation
What Research Shows
Research on Social Proof and Social Norms shows that people are strongly influenced by the visible behavior of peers and reference groups. Role-modeling behavior becomes especially influential when Champions respect and identify with role models, and when engagement and contribution are visibly recognized and appreciated by peers or leaders.
Practical Implications for Program Design
There are many ways to make meaningful Champion engagement and contribution visible throughout the community and organization. Here are a few examples:
Invite respected leaders to visibly recognize meaningful Champion contributions during Champions gatherings, such as a Champions conference or other milestone event.
Highlight Champions’ engagement and contributions through newsletters, the intranet, and similar internal communication channels.
Reflect Champions’ contributions in performance reviews, talent reviews, and development conversations to reinforce the organizational value of active participation.
4. Use Co-Creation to Build Ownership
What Research Shows
Research on the IKEA Effect, Procedural Justice, Psychological Ownership, and User Participation consistently shows that people place greater value on what they help shape or create. Similarly, research on Job Crafting suggests that people become more engaged when they can actively shape how they contribute.
In other words, when Champions participate in designing their own program experience, their commitment strengthens.
Practical Implications for Program Design
Opportunities for expanding Champions’ participation in shaping and improving the program are abundant for those willing to look. Champions can help design the program, define aspects of their own role, and contribute valuable input to the broader Ethics & Compliance program, for example by reviewing draft communications, policies, or training materials, or by contributing insights for risk analysis and culture assessment.
At the same time, methods and tools for co-creation have never been more accessible. Organizations can involve Champions through in-person or virtual workshops, synchronously or asynchronously, using surveys, polls, whiteboarding sessions, and other collaborative technologies. Meaningful co-creation is now easy even across large groups distributed over multiple time zones.
5. Use Positive Expectations to Support Motivation
What Research Shows
Several research strands, including Self-Efficacy Theory (Bandura), Growth Mindset (Dweck), and Stereotype Threat (Steele and Aronson), suggest that people often internalize the expectations placed upon them. People often sink or rise toward the expectations conveyed by those around them.
When people are treated with what Carl Rogers called “positive regard,” as capable, trusted, and able to grow, they are more likely to:
open up to the experience,
take initiative,
persist through challenges,
contribute confidently,
continue to develop.
Conversely, environments shaped by distrust, low expectations, or excessive control can unintentionally undermine confidence, motivation, and engagement.
Practical Implications for Program Design
Mindset: Approach Champions from a capability-based rather than deficit-based mindset, recognizing the strengths, lived experience, relationships, and leadership potential each individual Champion already brings to the program.
Program Positioning: Design the program as something distinctive to be part of, reinforcing the sense that becoming a Champion reflects trust, contribution, and leadership potential.
Communication Style: Communicate confidence in Champions’ capabilities and judgment, reinforcing that Champions are thoughtful contributors whose perspectives, experiences, and ideas genuinely matter to the organization.
Motivational Design Is Human-Centered
Many of the principles discussed above are fairly intuitive. Designing motivating program experiences is often less about large budgets and more about designing with the mindset of a respectful and thoughtful host: listening carefully to participants, creating meaningful opportunities for contribution and growth, recognizing people authentically, and fostering a sense of belonging, purpose, and shared accomplishment.
Once organizations adopt a genuinely Champion-centered mindset, many of the most effective choices for designing motivating program experiences become surprisingly intuitive.
What Are Your Thoughts?
Which research insight resonated most with your experience?
What have you found most effective in designing motivating program experiences?
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