One day about six months ago, my mother handed me a book. I was in the early stages of my "Summer of Reid" planning, and she gifted me a relatively thin, nondescript book with the title "Drive" printed on the front cover. She's given me plenty of motivational/self-help books in the past, and I've read almost none of them. Usually, I prop them on my book shelf and use them as stucco for the mosaic that is my book collection. (I feel guilty admitting that now.) Then, the weirdest thing happened. I left the book I had started reading, "The God Delusion," in the car and didn't have a book to read before bed. I looked through the bookshelf and felt a strange attraction to Daniel Pink's book. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down--I started it on Monday and, despite all of the other things I'm doing right now, finished it today (Thursday). I used over 150 Post-It tabs over the course of 226 pages, so there's quite a lot I found worth revisiting.
Rather than highlight all of my favorite quotes from the book, here is the "Twitter Summary" that Pink provides in the book:
"Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery and purpose."
Here's the quickest summary I can write:
Scientists have discovered that "intrinsic motivation" is more powerful than rewards and punishments. Business is outdated because it relies on external rewards and punishments, which fail because they extinguish intrinsic motivation, diminish performance, crush creativity and crowd out good behavior. They also encourage unethical behavior, create addictions and foster short-term thinking. The external system does work with rule-based routine tasks. Type X behavior is concerned with external desires and rewards, whereas Type I is concerned with inherent satisfaction. Autonomy is needed in the areas of task, time, team and technique. Engagement leads to mastery, which requires flow (Goldilocks tasks matched to our abilities). Mastery requires to realize that abilities are not finite but infinitely improvable. It is also a deliberate practice and can be represented by an asymptote. Humans also seek purpose maximization, which can exist alongside profit maximization. Purpose motive is expressed in goals, words and policies that encourage purpose beyond self interest.
Glossary of words to remember:
Baseline rewards
FedEx days
Goldilocks tasks
"If-then" rewards
Mastery asymptote
Motivation 3.0
Nonroutine work
"Now that" rewards
Results-only work environment (ROWE)
Routine work
Sawyer effect
20 percent time
Type I vs Type X behavior
This book is so amazing that I think everyone should read it. I love the theory behind the book, and it would be amazing and strange (at first) if the business world were to move towards this operation style. I'm not a boss or leader of anyone, but I found myself seeing so many ways in which I can improve for the future. In particular, there is a self-assessment section that asks questions and provides activities one can utilize to step out of Type X behavior and move towards Type I. It's quite possibly the best book I've read thus far!
Rating: A+
Bonus: here's Daniel Pink's TED Talk:
It's over 18 minutes long, but remains one of the top most-watched videos on Ted.
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