I recently watched Daniel Pink‘s speech from TED on the gap between the science of motivation and the actions of most businesses. If you aren’t familiar with Pink, his book “A Whole New Mind” is one of BGE’s most recommended reads and describes the game changing shift from the knowledge economy to the creative economy. His latest book, “Drive“, will be released in September and is called “a paradigm-changing examination of what truly motivates us.”
In this TED talk, he argues that “If, then, reward” and “carrot and stick” models of motivation are completely broken for creative tasks. Instead, what is needed is a business motivation model built around Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Powerful concepts that I believe most businesses certainly aren’t ready for. Certainly too large of a leap for most established, deliberate, conservative European and American companies who are EXACTLY the companies that stand to benefit the most from the change!
Daniel Pink’s message is no surprise to BGE. We are strong believers is the principals of meaningful work, partnership and ownership.
Enjoy the video, and visit ted.com for other brilliant minds sharing brilliant ideas.
This lecture reminds me of a History Channel-type story about the Apollo space program.
During the space race, engineers and technicians put in large amounts of overtime. To be more specific, they put in free, unexpected, unscheduled overtime.
After forty years, we can’t pin down individual motivators, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t money. Most engineers would be pretty excited just to be on a project to develop a way to get a man on the Moon.