Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN: 9781594488849
Daniel Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a timely, practical and fairly well researched work that delves into the practical application of intrinsic motivation. Sprinkled with pop-culture references (TPS reports and Facebook) alongside the results of personal interviews with some well-known names (Deci and Csikszentmihalyi) the book is a quick and interesting read that pulls together a number of disparate ideas. I took a lot of notes in my read and this is just a sprinkling of what I wrote.
Compare and Contrast
The entire premise of the book is to compare and contrast what Pink terms Motivation 2.0 and Motivation 3.0. Motivation 1.0 of course is primal urges: thirst, hunger etc. Motivation 2.0 is what has governed social interactions for centuries: reward and punishment. Motivation 3.0 is the less discussed intrinsic motivation.
Behavioralism (the proper term for reward and punishment motivation) has held sway in Business circles for many years. Frederick Winslow's time motion studies and B.F. Skinner's writings encouraged managers to structure the work environment as a place of reward and punishment.
Pink explores the idea that there are two basic types of work: Algorithmic and Heuristic. Algorithmic work is well-defined, step-by-step to accomplish a goal. Heuristic work on the other hand requires a person to use creative thinking to accomplish a task. As the U.S. economy grows more and more technical and we export more and more of our step-by-step jobs, the nature of work in America has changed from algorithmic to heuristic on the order of 30% to 70% respectively.
The author points out that historically, behavioralism works well in algorithmic environments. When the goal is clear and there are no obstacles, you can encourage workers to run faster and reach the goal quicker with rewards.
Heuristic work on the other hand responds poorly to reward. Workers tend to focus more on the reward and less on the solution. Focus on the task leads to a lack of creativity by reducing the time spent looking for alternative solutions. The narrowing effect can be seen in both the breadth (alternative) and depth (long term) of the thinking. There are numerous studies that indicate this is factual rather than speculative.
When a job requires creativity, be it writing an ad campaign, writing software or finding a new way to parse financial numbers, contingent rewards can backfire and actually crippled productivity. Counterintuitively goals that are improperly set can encourage workers to take shortcuts in order to receive a reward.
7 Reasons Carrots and Sticks Don't Work
- They can extinquish intrinsic motivation
- They can diminish performance
- They can crush creativity
- They can crowd out good behavior
- They can encourage cheating, short cuts and unethical behavior
- They can become addictive
- They can foster short-term thinking
Rewards that Can work
Extrinsic rewards can work well but generally only when tasks are routine. In these cases it's best to acknowledge that the task is boring, explain why it is necessary and allow the workers some latitude in how to accomplish the task.
Even so, rewards are often best if used as "now that we are done here's what you get" rather than "if you get this done, here is what you will get." This allows the workers to maintain focus on the task at hand. These types of rewards should be accompanied by specific feedback on exactly what you liked about the accomplished task.
Self Determination Theory
Deci and Ryan came up with a theory of motivation called the self determination theory. They identified three basic needs that humans have: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Pink uses these three needs as a framework for the bulk of his book in which he explores three themes: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose
Autonomy
Several times the concept of a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) came up in the book. This concept grew out of some managers at Best Buy who reorganized the corporate offices to focus less on putting your time and more on getting things done. This focus allowed greater flexibility in how things were done but of course required management to give up some control. The payoff was quite large and has been in several cases where ROWE's have been implemented.
Empowerment and flex-time are sometimes pointed to by managers as instances of autonomy. The reality though is that these concepts really only pay lip service to true autonomy. To truly engage workers with autonomy, managers need to focus on four areas: Task, Time, Technique and Team. Allowing employees autonomy in all of these areas will go a long ways towards unleashing intrinsic motivation in the work place.
Mastery
- Mastery is a mindset
- Mastery is a pain
- Mastery is an asymptote (you will never reach it though you can approach it)
An interesting discussion that Pink explored in this section dealt with two different types of goals you can set for yourself. Performance goals have a clear defined measurement that indicates the goal was reached. Learning goals on the other hand are about improvement rather than reaching a specified level.
Taken in the context of school, a performance goal oriented student needs to prove they are smart by passing a particular exam. A learning goal oriented student on the other hand will walk away from a test with a better understanding of where to go next in their learning.
An interesting side effect of these two viewpoints is a persons view of effort. If you are performance goal oriented you tend to regard effort as an indication that you aren't very good at what you are doing. Learning goal oriented people view hard work as simply a way to get better at what they do.
Purpose
Many of my conservative friends have a view of economics that holds dearly to the proposition that wealth maximization is the most efficient way to utilize our resources. Thus profit maximization is the best (indeed only) acceptable goal for business endeavors.
Pink quotes Gary Hamel as saying "... wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies." When taken in the context of intrinsic motivation and the power of people engaged in volunteer work, I tend to agree with Hamel.
I am not sure where purpose maximization fits in my view of economics but it is certainly a direction of thought I am going to pursue in my studies.
Conclusion
Very interesting and light read. If you are interested in intrinsic motivation and want a good survey of the ideas and concepts that are out there, this book would be a great place to start.