How to use it
- 1Score each trait, 1 to 7. Feedback and Autonomy carry the most weight; Skill Variety, Visible Outcome, and Task Significance carry medium weight. Score the role as it exists today, not as you wish it worked.
- 2Read the Motivating Potential Score. The calculator applies the same weighting Hackman and Oldham built into the original formula: feedback and autonomy multiply the result, so a role low on either one caps out fast.
- 3Check the band, not just the number. Most jobs land in the moderate or low bands. That's normal: only about 1% of roles score very high.
- 4Use it to target one change. A leader can redesign the role. An individual contributor can ask for a specific, impactful change: more feedback or more autonomy usually moves the score more than anything else.
Who it's for
Managers redesigning a role. Run it before and after a change to see whether the redesign actually raises the score.- Individual contributors asking for change. Use the score to make a concrete case for more autonomy or more direct feedback, not just a general request for "more engagement."
- HR and L&D teams diagnosing disengagement. Low motivation potential is a job design problem, not just a morale problem; the score points at which trait to fix first.
The research behind it
The Motivating Potential Score comes from Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model, one of the most tested frameworks in organizational psychology. It treats motivation as a property of the job itself, not just the person doing it: five core traits, skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, combine to predict how motivating a role will feel.
Autonomy and feedback are weighted more heavily than the other three traits in the formula, which is why they're labeled "most impactful" here: a role can be full of variety and meaning and still score low if the person doing it has no control over how the work gets done and never hears how it's going.
Source: Hackman, J.R. & Oldham, G.R. (1975). Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(2), 159-170. Hackman, J.R. & Oldham, G.R. (2007). How job characteristics theory happened. In K.G. Smith & M.A. Hitt (Eds.), Great Minds in Management. Oxford University Press.
What's inside the spreadsheet
See how we teach feedback that actually lands.
Feedback is the single most impactful trait in this formula. Our workshop gives managers a practical structure for giving it well.
Explore the Gravity workshop: "Give and Receive Effective Feedback"
