My top 30 points:
- Motivation 1.0. At the dawn of evolution, human behavior was simple. Its only trigger was the survival instinct- gather food, protect themselves from animals, and recreate. Motivation 1, even though it wasn’t the most elegant, worked well back in the day.
- Motivation 2.0. As human societies developed, the operating system based solely on the biological drive stopped being as productive. The drive had to be restrained otherwise people would harm each other, stealing food (and maybe wives.) This is when reward and punishment came into play.
- Motivation 2.0 dominated for a very long time, achieving its peak at the age of the Industrial Revolution. Rapid technological development required a clear method of control over employees, and such a method was developed by F W Taylor. People were treated merely like horses. Taylor believed that people were innately passive and needed outer influence to work productively.
- Motivation 2.1. Taylor’s views met some resistance. In the 1960s, Douglas McGregor of MIT stated that people had higher drives & he inspired organizations to respect their employees, give them more autonomy, and let them grow. However, it wasn’t enough and we can still observe the Taylorist approach being widely used in modern organizations.
- Motivation 3.0. To proceed to this operating system, we need to shift to the Type I behavior (see below)
- Even though the effectiveness of intrinsic motivation (and flaws of the extrinsic one) has been proved by science, there is a huge gap between what science knows and what business does.
- Two types of motivation: Type X (extrinsic) and Type I (intrinsic). Type I behavior is a renewable resource. Think of Type X behavior as coal, and Type I behavior as the sun.
- But coal has two downsides. First, it produces nasty things like air pollution and greenhouse gases. Second, it’s finite. Type X behavior is similar. An emphasis on rewards and punishments spews its own externalities. And ‘if-then’ motivators always grow more expensive.
- Many people learn to be Type X through faulty environments, such as experiences at home, school, and work. Pink blames management practices.
- Type I behavior, which is built around intrinsic motivation, draws on resources that are easily replenished and inflict little damage. It is the motivational equivalent of clean energy: inexpensive, safe to use, and endlessly renewable.
- Like all extrinsic motivators, goals narrow our focus. That’s one reason they can be effective; they concentrate the mind. But a narrowed focus exacts a cost. For complex or conceptual tasks, offering a reward can blinker the wide-ranging thinking necessary to come up with an innovative solution.
- Extrinsic rewards can be useful for algorithmic work. Algorithmic work is directed and includes doing the same thing over and over. Extrinsic rewards do not undermine people’s intrinsic motivation for dull tasks because there is little or no intrinsic motivation to be undermined.
- For creative, right-brain, heuristic tasks, you’re on shaky ground offering ‘if-then’ rewards. You’re better off using ‘now that’ rewards. And you’re best off if your ‘now that’ rewards provide praise, feedback, and useful information.
- Type I behavior depends upon three nutrients: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Type I behavior is self-directed. It is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. and it connects that quest for excellence to a larger purpose.
- The essential requirement: Any extrinsic reward should be unexpected and offered only after the task is complete.
- Autonomy is a desire to be self-directed, it increases engagement over compliance. Organizations should provide employees with greater autonomy, allowing them to have more control over their work, schedules, and decision-making processes.
- Autonomy is inborn. People are not inert by nature. We are naturally curious and self-directed. This becomes obvious when you observe children and see how eager they are to learn things about this world.
- Autonomy is over four aspects of work: what people do, when they do it, how they do it, and whom they do it with. As Atlassian’s experience shows, Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.
- Mastery is the urge to get better skilled. And that’s why it’s crucial for innovation: only an inquiring mind and the willingness to experiment can solve complex problems. Organizations should create environments that support continuous learning, growth, and skill development.
- One of the best ways to know whether you’ve mastered something is to try to teach it.
- Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more. The most deeply motivated people connect their desires to a cause larger than themselves.
- Purpose is the desire to do something that has meaning and is important. Organizations should provide employees with a clear sense of purpose and help them understand how their work contributes to meaningful outcomes.
- Purpose provides the context for autonomy and mastery; it provides activation energy; people reminded of why they work will work harder.
- The current model of motivation is carrots or sticks, money or termination. If-then rewards actually extinguish intrinsic motivation and diminish performance, crush creativity, and reduce good behavior. They also motivate people into undesirable behavior e.g. unethical behavior, addictions, and short-term thinking.
- People are much more likely to reach flow in work than in leisure. Work is as natural to humans as play and rest. Part of the problem is people’s mindset that work is not play, even though the boundary between them is artificial and work often actually is play.
- Pink mentions three realms of organizational life where purpose can be found – goals, words, and policies.
- Goals. Motivation 3.0 companies use profit as a catalyst rather than as an objective. Their goal is to pursue purpose.
- Words. Words have power, and the right choice of words can make a miracle. Management goals are typically described in words like “efficiency,” “advantage,” and “superiority,”. The problem is that these words do not rouse hearts. Business leaders should find ways to humanize the work people do, coloring mundane activities with ideals of honor, truth, justice, and beauty.
- Policies. Instead of telling people to behave in a certain way, create conditions that would enable them to do it. Provide a set of standards to follow.
- The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive—our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.
