Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

by Daniel H. Pink (Goodreads Author)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 15,933 ratings · 1,448 reviews

Forget everything you thought you knew about how to motivate people—at work, at school, at home. It's wrong. As Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others) explains in his paradigm-shattering book Drive, the secret to high performance and satisfaction in today's world is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn a...more

Hardcover, 242 pages

Published December 29th 2009 by Riverhead Hardcover (first published 2009)

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Sep 08, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

What frustrates me is the main premise has a contradiction that is never addressed. He begins the book with some research on monkeys that demonstrated an innate interest in solving puzzles. He then goes on to describe his big premise which is that we are are in the midst of a major motivational shift. First our motivation was our biological drives. Then came a period of motivation from structure and oversight. And now we want autonomy to determine our own motivation. But Pink's presentation on t...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Newengland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, finished-in-2011, nonfiction

Why am I writing this review on Goodreads, anyway? I'm not getting paid for it. There are plenty of other things I should be doing. And it's not like I have a coterie of devoted followers waiting with bated breath for my next review (in fact, the vast majority of reviews I write here get zero comments and zero "likes"). So why, then?

DRIVE has the answer. I do it for me. I do it for intrinsic reasons and thumb my nose at the world of extrinsic ones. I do it because I derive personal pleasure from...more Why am I writing this review on Goodreads, anyway? I'm not getting paid for it. There are plenty of other things I should be doing. And it's not like I have a coterie of devoted followers waiting with bated breath for my next review (in fact, the vast majority of reviews I write here get zero comments and zero "likes"). So why, then?

DRIVE has the answer. I do it for me. I do it for intrinsic reasons and thumb my nose at the world of extrinsic ones. I do it because I derive personal pleasure from it, because it challenges me to summarize and critique succinctly, because I am free to be funny, irreverent, scholarly, deadpan, conventional, or wacky. Now THAT'S incentive!

And you don't even have to read this whole book to get Daniel Pink's message. For one, he sums up each chapter in a pecan shell at the end of the book, so you can read that instead next time you're at Barnes & Noble. Or you can visit the TED website and watch Pink sum up his message in a speech for free. But if you want the dirty details, read the book. It's fast, it's easy, it's enlightening.

The book is chiefly geared toward the business community, but has ramifications for all of us and, in my case, for the education community (where I first saw it recommended). It debunks the myth of the carrot and stick, that rewards get results and sticks get results -- always. No, no, no. Science, Pink says, proves otherwise. And he parades one case study after another to make his point.

Perhaps the most salient is the encyclopedia example. Back in 1995, Microsoft paid writers big bucks to write Encarta, an encyclopedia it sold on CD and as software. Only, around 10 years later, Bill Gates' boys had to wave the white flag and fold up camp, vanquished and defeated by a competitor that paid no one -- not a bloody dime -- and offered its encyclopedia for free. That competitor? Wikipedia. Written by everyday Joes and Josephines the world over. For nothing.

Then there was the Swedish blood bank. Its administrators decided to cash in by switching from a donation model to a pay-to-bleed model. What happened? Blood donations plummeted. Why? Swedes preferred to give blood for humane reasons, not for blood money. They did it for intrinsic reasons, not extrinsic ones.

So what does this mean to businesses? It means the old ways of dictatorial managers overseeing not-to-be-trusted worker bees are over. If, Pink says, you give workers THREE gifts -- autonomy, mastery, and purpose -- they will work like hell for you (because it's as much for THEM). In many ways it makes sense. Given the choice, humans will work for less money if a company offers them more leeway, creative outlets, flexibility, challenges with long-term goals, camaraderie, and raison d'être's (so to speak).

Pink points to our childhoods. We're all born with a built-in hunger to learn, to challenge ourselves, to WORK, but schools (and then workplaces) beat it out of us with monotony and inanity, dullness and repetition. What if you got a "FedEx Friday" every week -- a day to work on any project toward the company's cause you wished, as long as you presented your results to co-workers and admins the following Monday? That's how Post-It notes were invented by a guy at 3M. The company gave its workers time to manage and challenge themselves. Voila!

In education, it amounts to adding relevancy to the classroom. What's the point? How does this connect to the world and how can it be used in the student's future? Can we give students choice, provide the tools, and turn them loose while serving as mentors? Oddly, many teachers cannot and will not because they feel like they will be ceding control AND because they will no longer be doing their job the way they have always done it and/or the way THEIR teachers always did it to THEM (oh, sins of the fathers!).

So, yeah. If you don't know the lessons of DRIVE, you should jump on the Autobahn and get up to speed. Really. It's not just for work -- it's for you, too. Motivate yourself. Check it out.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, cultural-and-social-commentary, how-to, nonfiction

So, I listened to this entire book about motivation, and I can't figure out why I don't feel motivated to write a review. No carrot, no stick, no review.

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Mar 30, 2010 Cath Duncan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I got an early copy for the Bottom-line Bookclub. Look out for Drive on the shelves from 29 Dec.

I'm LOVING this latest book by Dan Pink. A Whole New Mind is a stroke of genius in understanding the way that the world of work has changed, and DRIVE is a powerful extension to A Whole New Mind that argues that, because of the ways that the world of work has changed, carrot-and-stick motivation is no longer effective or desirable. Instead, he explains how you can elicit a much more powerful form of m...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

In Drive, Daniel H. Pink suggests that there is a gap between what "science knows and what business does." I was not shocked to learn that this gap exists, and I attributed Pink's decision to emphasize the existence of this gap to what I believe is the author's drive to attract corporate speaking engagements, consultancies, and Op/Ed articles in national newspapers. If he's lucky, he could maybe land a job as a pundit. Ostensibly, Pink's purpose is to share the "surprising truth about what motiv...more In Drive, Daniel H. Pink suggests that there is a gap between what "science knows and what business does." I was not shocked to learn that this gap exists, and I attributed Pink's decision to emphasize the existence of this gap to what I believe is the author's drive to attract corporate speaking engagements, consultancies, and Op/Ed articles in national newspapers. If he's lucky, he could maybe land a job as a pundit. Ostensibly, Pink's purpose is to share the "surprising truth about what motivates us," and I enjoyed this book whenever I was able to view it as a book about self-determination theory rather than an advertisement for speaking engagements and consultancy.

Pink's report on self-determination theory and how it affects motivation is consistently fascinating. We traditionally acknowledge two drives that inspire action. The first is the biological drive, which is intrinsic. The second drive, which arguably has more to do with the workplace than the first, is material incentives, such as salary and punishment. These are extrinsic motivators. Under this view, work is agony and we need careful structures of incentives and disincentives to control employee laziness.

What Pink reports is that there is evidence of a third drive. It seems that people find satisfaction in completing tasks. In other words, people are intrinsically motivated to work and produce. The key to motivating workers here is to give them: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If one of these is lacking, people may actually not feel motivated to work at all. So if workers seem disengaged, Pink's solution is to stop focusing on carrots and sticks and start inspiring workers to feel like human beings by shaping work to engage the third drive. My favorite example of this was when Pink contrasted two approaches to organizing call centers to illustrate 1) the power of the third drive and 2) that even work that we'd often dismiss as a McJob can benefit from this approach.

Self-determination theory in the workplace gets interesting when we consider the intersection of money and the third drive. For complex tasks, carrots and sticks actually inhibit performance. Though they can help in the short-term, people that tap into the third drive almost always outperform the donkeys in the long term. Pink suggests that the most useful thing an employer can do to improve performance is to take the discussion of money off the table by offering a fair wage. So long as people make enough money that they feel they are being treated fairly, money will not stop them from performing. Next, offer them autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

I found it interesting that Pink often stops to mention that most companies refuse to acknowledge the third drive. When they do acknowledge it, as Best Buy did, they often only allow middle management or higher to experience it. It's almost as though a majority of business leaders refuse to believe that their employees are human beings, as opposed to donkeys. I couldn't help thinking of the novel Fight Club, in which employees quit their jobs because Tyler Durden offers them autonomy, mastery, and purpose through an underground network called "Project Mayhem."

I actually found a great deal of this discussion fascinating. However, there are some disappointing decisions in Drive. Pink is able to clearly and, for the most part, concisely explain self-determination theory in popular format. At times, there is a little too much repetition, particularly the closing chapter that offers three different summaries (Twitter, cocktail party, and chapter by chapter) of the book's message (autonomy, mastery, and purpose).

More annoyingly, Pink continuously refers to the drives as "Motivation 1.0," Motivation 2.0," and "Motivation 3.0," which I found an incredibly hackneyed attempt to sound "with it." Worse, he doesn't seem to realize that "Drive" has a computer science connotation.

Things are referred to as the "Zen" of management, which, yes, sounds trendy. However, if I could set up some guidelines for authors to follow, I'd suggest they actually research what "Zen" means. It is more than an art of motorcycle maintenance and many authors might be surprised to learn that its roots go back further than middle management strategies.

Ultimately, I found self-determination theory extremely interesting, and I suspect that Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us will have me thinking about what I do and how I do it for a long time to come. However, it does require readers to overlook a lot of irritatingly trendy writing that tries to "connect" with the audience through "21st century power words" like "2.0," the "Zen" of compensation, and even a Twitter summary.(less)

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Jan 23, 2011 Michael Halligan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I imagine this is a great book to confuse those with a lot of management theory behind them. Luckily I'm not one of those, and this book has really struck home. Pink focuses begins by focusing on describing existing management processes as a carrot and stick reward system having evolved workplace of monotonous, undesirable tasks. He introduces the work of a number of social scientists and management theorists, as well as the results of their experiments both in the lab and in the work place. He...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has been on my "to read" shelf for some time, and while I had read some excerpts, understood the general ideas and seen the excellent RSA Animate excerpt (http://goo.gl/zH1QH), there is far more here than is generally summed up.

This book became extremely interesting because it was juxtaposed with a discussion of Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs published shortly after his death. A coworker not known for his managerial skills but who is respected for his results read the Jobs b...more This book has been on my "to read" shelf for some time, and while I had read some excerpts, understood the general ideas and seen the excellent RSA Animate excerpt (http://goo.gl/zH1QH), there is far more here than is generally summed up.

This book became extremely interesting because it was juxtaposed with a discussion of Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs published shortly after his death. A coworker not known for his managerial skills but who is respected for his results read the Jobs book and commented that his biggest takeaway from Steve Jobs' contribution was that despite my coworker's abusive management style, he was far to kind to his employees. Jobs was notable for his often abrasive and abusive style in pursuit of better results, and many seem to believe that his willingness to disregard others in pursuit of excellence was one of the secrets to Jobs' success. Dan Pink's "Drive" offers an alternative explanation and is excellent lens into the true genius of Steve Jobs and those like him.

In reality, Pink shows that the strongest results regardless of the field generally come from individuals that are intrinsically rather than externally motivated. Pounding on people in any setting produces short term results, but as Pink shows, can have disastrous long term consequences. Despite this, Jobs and other tyranical managers often show results. I suggest that the reason for their success is really in their ability to choose talent and offer vision rather than their work style. Pink shows via numerous examples that, given resources, freedom and opportunity to develop themselves, people will seek the highest and best use for themselves.

While much of the book is a survey of other work (Arielly is mentioned by name, and there is much that is reminiscent of Talib and Gladwell), Pink goes further and adds some insight of his own by expanding on the idea of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivations.

More importantly, he adds a series of practical suggestions for developing intrinsic motivation in a number of settings at the end of the book. Practical applications are what is most often missing from books of this genre and his suggestions are welcome.

In the end the book is an easy read and is definitely not a panacea for management skill in any setting. But it delivers in the area that it should. It provides a foundation for the reader to consider specific ways they can improve themselves and others. In other words, the book makes you think.
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Jan 12, 2013 Carrie Kellenberger rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: business, pyschology, business-management, self-help

Are you the type of person that is motivated by money and fame, or are you someone that is motivated by having a larger purpose in life? Or are you a combination of both? Financial gain has always been a motivator for me, but I'm also the type of person that will take on extra work, new projects or volunteer my time simply because I like the work and it makes me feel good. It might sound crazy, but I'm not the only one. The volunteer industry is booming with people just like me who are looking f...more Are you the type of person that is motivated by money and fame, or are you someone that is motivated by having a larger purpose in life? Or are you a combination of both? Financial gain has always been a motivator for me, but I'm also the type of person that will take on extra work, new projects or volunteer my time simply because I like the work and it makes me feel good. It might sound crazy, but I'm not the only one. The volunteer industry is booming with people just like me who are looking for a personal sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes from donating your time to a greater cause than your own.

The central idea in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us highlights the gap between what science already knows and what businesses still do. Traditional businesses have always been centered around the premise that you reward good work with more pay, but this system often doesn't work. In some cases, it can actually do more harm than good because people tend to narrow their focus or skip steps when they have an end reward in sight.

Many studies have shown that most people aren't motivated by financial rewards. They show that most of us are more motivated and fulfilled by having autonomy (the desire to direct our own lives), mastery (the desire to become better and better at something that matters) and purpose (a yearning to do what we want to do in the service of something that is bigger than we are) in our work lives.

I quit my last job because I hated it, and the main reason why I hated it was because my bosses controlled every aspect of my work day. We had no freedom to do the work the way we wanted to do it. One boss in particular literally hovered over my desk to make sure that I was writing and editing something exactly the way she wanted it done, and then she'd still send it back for more revisions. I'd work my ass off and never felt that the financial reward was enough for what I was doing. I soon realized that the greatest satisfaction I get from any job has been about being able to do my work the way I want to do it, when I want to do it. I'm a natural autodidact, so I love to learn and I love to work towards bettering myself, but when I stop learning, I start stagnating. There's no purpose in taking on a job that doesn't allow you to learn and grow with it.

I read this book because I'm a new business owner; my partner and I want to create a happy and healthy work environment for our employees, and also because I'm genuinely interested in the topic. I'm walking away with some terrific ideas on how to restructure our business to meet those goals.

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Jul 23, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. I've often felt uncomfortable with a "regular" job and now I know why. As a freelancer, it's scary at times but you are the master of your fate. I want to get better at the things I do and I want to be around people who have that same attitude so that we can all grow together.
I'm thinking of all the amazing coffee roasters and baristas in the Houston area who have fostered this type of growth in their own industry. (To my caffeine/caffe loving soul's delight.)

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Jul 08, 2010 Phoebe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Only the first chapter is necessary. The rest is repetitious and filled with soon-to-be-obsolete computer metaphors.

However, I've been thinking a lot about this book since I read it (a few weeks ago?), so two stars was perhaps a stingy rating. Everywhere I go lately, I see examples of poorly-designed systems, destined to kill people's intrinsic motivation.

I recently read "Unconditional Parenting" by Alfie Kohn. Kohn's premise is basically that rewarding and punishing children for acting in cert...more

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Jan 27, 2010 Doug rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: business, nonfiction

Some good ideas, but for once I'd like to see a book where the case studies about flexible scheduling and autonomy don't involve software companies or consultants. I'd like to see an example where they motivate DMV employees to work harder to do the same menial work, but if giving DMV employees 20% flex time for their own projects means a corresponding 20% increase in the 2 hour wait time, I'm not on board with it. I don't know why, but it bugs me when authors use software version numbers, the b...more

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Apr 12, 2011 Vivian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This is for parents, teachers, administrators, entrepreneurs, managers, directors, researchers, speakers, employees, employers, business owners, even librarians--pretty much all of us. I listened to the audio version of this book and decided I MUST OWN it in book form, so now I do. He is very serious about changing the way things are done to a better way-- even creating a place for the curious, the convinced, and the skeptical to interact, either with on-line quizzes, feedback, etc. He includes...more

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May 29, 2012 Rick Covert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Forget what you thought you knew about motivation and discover what really makes people tick

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Mar 22, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, adult

The truth about what motivates us isn't really all that surprising... what's surprising to me is that our institutions, especially schools, are still clinging to the idea that people are basically lazy blobs who need to be prodded to do anything mentally stimulating. Pink argues that intrinsic motivation -- our desire to be challenged and use our brains -- is a very powerful drive that can be harnessed to create better workers and students. Unfortunately, this drive is largely ignored by teacher...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Neeraj Bali added it

Here is a book with a new take on motivation:
We know that 'businesses' have always been profit-maximizers. The new entities are, however, purpose-maximizers. The author offers examples like Wikipedia to substantiate his point. This is not to argue that profit is no longer a motive for business. It is. There is, however, a shift towards 'purpose' as the motivator. Pink calls the old ‘carrot and stick’ motivation as Motivation 2.0 and the ‘new’ intrinsically based motivation as 3.0.

Intrinsic motiv...more

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May 18, 2013 Elizabeth Fuller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Can't decide between three stars and four (when is Goodreads going to add half stars?). What was here was good and thought-provoking, as many fans and reviews have claimed...but it also seemed to me like the main points were pretty basic and that the package was padded a bit to bring it to book length (actually, I think I could write a one-page synopsis that would say all the same things). Also, I've read some of the source material he relies on, so that added to my less-new-here-than-I-expected...more

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May 17, 2013 Annie Smidt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

A little book with a few good ideas. I liked it. On the one hand, it didn't seem especially revelatory, and the scientific-studies-contextualized-for-laypeople format gets a little old sometimes when you start to feel like you've heard about all the studies before (between Pink and Gladwell and The Heath dudes and the Freakonomics dudes...). On the other hand, I think this book actually gave me some valuable insights into my own motivations to do what I do. So perhaps it was a bit revelatory aft...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Ian Robertson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Drive is a thoughtful, thought provoking, and engaging book that will be of interest to everyone. It combines the best features of a book challenging the status quo: an academic foundation free of intimidating buzzwords; clear writing; logical structure; and a message that is concise, entertaining, and educational.

The book is divided into three parts: a challenge to the commonly held notion and practice that we are motivated by a carrot and stick approach; an explanation of the three forces whi...more Drive is a thoughtful, thought provoking, and engaging book that will be of interest to everyone. It combines the best features of a book challenging the status quo: an academic foundation free of intimidating buzzwords; clear writing; logical structure; and a message that is concise, entertaining, and educational.

The book is divided into three parts: a challenge to the commonly held notion and practice that we are motivated by a carrot and stick approach; an explanation of the three forces which really do drive us (autonomy, mastery and purpose); and a “toolkit” offering a broad range of practical advice. The summary concluding the three sections is very clever and effective.

Mr. Pink starts by explaining that three forces drive our behaviour: biological (e.g. hunger); rewards and punishments; and a third force well known to science but not to business or the public, called “intrinsic motivation.” Historically, once our biological needs were satisfied, we organised our work lives for structural efficiency, employing carrot and stick incentives.

The fundamental problem with the current incentive system is that, although it can be effective for routine or repetitive activities such as Henry Ford’s assembly lines, it is not well suited to more complex jobs. Because our tasks are more complex - no longer are we trying to increase the number of rivets per hour in a car door - carrot and stick approaches can distort outcomes, lead to unethical behaviour, or foster short term thinking, as we have recently seen in the financial sector. Worse, they do little to address the inherent satisfaction we feel from a job well done. Pink contends that to be effective in our modern economy, business needs to concern “itself less with the external rewards an activity brings and more with the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself.”

Specifically, he identifies three elements needed to shift workers to be more productive. First, we need autonomy over tasks, time, team members, and technique. Second, we need mastery of our work, which requires us to see our abilities as improvable, which requires effort and deliberate practice, and a recognition that we will never actually quite achieve it. Third, we need purpose - “goals that use profit to reach purpose”, an emphasis on more than self-interest, and the ability to pursue the goals in our own ways.

Pay, we learn, is related more strongly to the first two types of drive (biological and behaviour/reward), and above a certain threshold, the inherent rewards of a job well done become more and more important. Pink notes that “people who are very high in extrinsic goals for wealth are more likely to attain that wealth, but they are still unhappy.” Charles Dickens knew this intuitively when he wrote A Christmas Carol, but Daniel Pink explains why, and offers a legible prescription for curing what ails the system.

Daniel Pink has the final word. “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 make a contribution.”
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Apr 05, 2013 Fiona Leonard rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a homeschooling, self employed person, this book didn't come as a huge surprise, but it is one that I really enjoyed. I suspect it is because this is a book that sets down on paper what your gut has been telling you for years.

Drawing on decades of research and numerous commercial case studies, Daniel Pink unpacks and refutes the notion that the carrot and stick approach is an optimal approach to management. Pink asserts that while financial incentives may provide an initial motivational spike...more As a homeschooling, self employed person, this book didn't come as a huge surprise, but it is one that I really enjoyed. I suspect it is because this is a book that sets down on paper what your gut has been telling you for years.

Drawing on decades of research and numerous commercial case studies, Daniel Pink unpacks and refutes the notion that the carrot and stick approach is an optimal approach to management. Pink asserts that while financial incentives may provide an initial motivational spike, to achieve long term results you need to look to less tangible incentives like autonomy, mastery and purpose. He looks in particular at the business models that have emerged over the last decade that are throwing standard approaches out the window. While he asserts that people have baseline financial needs, business models like open source software or Wikipedia provide a window to a world where people are driven by a whole new set of motivators.

As someone who reads a lot about education models and approaches, much of what Pink has to say rang true. But what I found really interesting was the range of 'standard practises' that he, scientists and companies are now beginning to question because not only do they fail to motivate staff, but are being shown to increase attrition rates, and lower corporate performance - things like billable hours for lawyers and commission payments for sales teams.

What's inspiring about the case studies is seeing the evolution of ideas like working from home. Pink provides some fascinating research on the rise of 'homeshoring' by companies looking at alternatives to relocating their call centres offshore. Rather than looking solely at tapping into cheap labour, homeshoring looks to access a workforce that is effectively off the business grid - people like mothers, retirees, or those with disabilities who require a greater flexibility in their working environment. If you've ever been one of those off the grid types, you won't be surprised to hear that this new workforce is better educated - around 70-80% of homeshored customer service agents are college educated - and is consistently delivering a higher quality service than the conventional approach, whilst still being cost effective.

My only criticism of the book is that it is confined to conventional workplaces. There's considerable scope to take the ideas and research outlined here and explore them in the context of the current generation of entrepreneurs and self employed. The world of homeschooling also provides a whole other case study for a study of motivation. (It doesn't take a homeschooling parent long to realise that the threat of suspending a student from school carries little weight!)

This book is really worth a read, but if you would prefer a quick snapshot of the basic principles, check out Pink's Ted Talk on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvA...(less)

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Mar 13, 2013 Corrie Campbell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: education

Drive is an entertaining and light read, but it also has and interesting and provocative subject matter. In this way it is much like a Malcolm Gladwell book (who actually gave the book an endorsement). The subject matter is both interesting because it deals with motivation and provocative because the world at large, for the most part, is unfortunately still operating under the idea of BF Skinner's behaviorism (carrots and sticks), whereas the truth of intrinsic motivation is sadly unknown. The u...more Drive is an entertaining and light read, but it also has and interesting and provocative subject matter. In this way it is much like a Malcolm Gladwell book (who actually gave the book an endorsement). The subject matter is both interesting because it deals with motivation and provocative because the world at large, for the most part, is unfortunately still operating under the idea of BF Skinner's behaviorism (carrots and sticks), whereas the truth of intrinsic motivation is sadly unknown. The upshot is that carrots and sticks do work very well -- which is why everyone uses them constantly -- but for only a very narrow band of circumstances. This second part of behaviorism is what most people are unaware of as is the power of intrinsic motivation, which takes over where carrots and sticks falls short. This topic is so important because even though this is thoroughly researched in social science it is largely ignored by today's policy makers and leaders of businesses and places of education.

Daniel Pink's TED Talk on this subject is a primer to this conversation and well worth seeing. However, if you want the entire story about intrinsic motivation -- which deals with autonomy, mastery and purpose -- the book elucidates. I disagree with other reviews who rate the book low, unless you are an academic, researcher or someone who is familiar with the field and want an in-depth understanding, then yes, maybe look elsewhere for another book. However, if you are a layperson and someone new to the conversation and want a light or quick read, then this may be the perfect book to start with. The book is primarily 150 pages with another 100 pages of a "toolkit" which includes features such as a recap, a glossary, a reading list and a conversation starter. The reading list is a wonderful way to further explore the topic of motivation and an indication of who the book was really intended for; the mainstream audience with only a cursory understanding on the topic of motivation.(less)

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Mar 12, 2013 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lately I had begun to hate my job. My tasks had changed, and I had a new boss. Though I was getting paid more, I was still dissatisfied and ready to quit and take off to find myself, a la Cheryl Strayed's Wild, but with preferably fewer bugs.

Then a friend suggested I read Drive, and it all made sense!

The typical "if-then" promise of reward works well for people who are extrinsically motivated - primarily motivated by the external rewards from an activity, and less concerned with the inherent sat...more Lately I had begun to hate my job. My tasks had changed, and I had a new boss. Though I was getting paid more, I was still dissatisfied and ready to quit and take off to find myself, a la Cheryl Strayed's Wild, but with preferably fewer bugs.

Then a friend suggested I read Drive, and it all made sense!

The typical "if-then" promise of reward works well for people who are extrinsically motivated - primarily motivated by the external rewards from an activity, and less concerned with the inherent satisfaction of doing said activity. It also works well for tasks which are routine, dull, and/or don't require much creative thinking. But it doesn't work for intrinsically motivated people (assuming they at least make a baseline salary), who are motivated by the "freedom, challenge, and purpose of the undertaking itself; any other gains are welcome, but mainly as a bonus."

How to keep intrinsically motivated people happy and challenged? For starters, give them autonomy over task, time, technique, and team.

For example, customer call centers have huge turnover. Not at Zappos, where customer service reps aren't monitored or required to use scripts - they can answer calls any way they want, as long as they serve the customer well.

I'll be honest with you: this book is not exactly a fun read. I didn't whip through it. In fact, I had to read essays about food in between chapters about mastery and purpose, or else I would have fallen down in a stupor. This is a book that I probably should re-read to really get all I can out of it, and it will still be a slow read the second time.

But the ideas in it are exciting and helped me clarify what I want in a work environment. (How to find such an environment is not covered in this book, unfortunately.) Now I understand why I'm dissatisfied. And maybe it'll help me figure out ways to incorporate more intrinsically-motivating challenges into my current job, by taking control in the few areas I can, so that I don't have to drop everything and hit the woods.

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Feb 11, 2013 Justin added it

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Jan 29, 2013 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book about motivation written with a business management audience in mind, so it is very direct and simply written. The main point is that external motivation worked well for 20th century factory work but work in the 21st century needs more emphasis on internal motivation. Three main aspects of internal motivation are autonomy, mastery, and purpose. These points are explained well and illustrated with good examples. Moreover, a final chapter addresses "what to do now."

My main critique...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Jw van Eck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Not sure who forwarded me the YouTube link about Pink's book a few years ago, but finally a colleague got me the paper version (1/3 of the book is about how to apply the ideas of the first 2/3).

Pink claims that carrot and stick as extrinsic rewards for performance are outdated (and probably never really worked for creative work). Instead autonomy, mastery and purpose - each have their chapter in the book- should be our focus, if we want to get the most of ourselves and are colleagues, for the he...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Guntar Akhmad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sebelum mbaca buku ini, sebaiknya mbaca TED talks nya dulu deh, terutama yg dari RSA.

Membangun kebahagiaan dg basis selain uang itu sangat penting. Buku ini sendiri sangat bagus untuk mbantuin kita menemukan kepuasan batin dan "it feels right" terkait kerjaan. Meskipun buku ini pada dasarnya bicara ttg ide yg sudah lama—motivasi intrinsik—tapi sudut dan kelengkapan pandangnya cukup berbeda.

Secara realita, tidak mudah membawa ide ini dalam memotivasi karyawan. Masalahnya, bahkan atasan sendiri j...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Clare Herbert rated it 3 of 5 stars

Daniel Pink’s ‘Drive’ offers a compelling new exploration of modern motivation. “Carrots & sticks are so last century”, he argues. Today, autonomy, mastery and purpose form the tripod on which all good work stands.

Pink’s thesis is that business doesn’t do what science knows to be the most effective. The old models of financial rewards for increased productivity are no longer fit for purpose and often serve to encourage unethical behavior and promote short-term thinking.

I really enjoyed this...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Torben Rasmussen rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a re-read for me. I scanned this book briefly after having it recommended to me, but did not really read it page-by-page.

After having read the Art of Making and From Good to Great I became interested again in how Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose could be used as the basis for enabling motivation. This is very much recommended as an overview of some of the newer thought on management and motivation, but it is only an overview.

Pink has an excellent writing style and he brings out many good...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Mark Fallon rated it 4 of 5 stars

For years, I’ve been railing against “pay for performance” programs, advising clients and audiences to focus their energies on creating a culture of excellence for their organizations. Most of the time, it felt like tilting at windmills, as people stuck to a tired principle which demeans employees. Next time I have this argument, I’ll be carrying a copy of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink.

Pink draws on over 4 decades of research to dismiss the old claims about...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Bill added it · review of another edition

If you keep up with the sort of periodical literature on this stuff that tends to show up on newsfeeds like Hacker News, then you will find little that is surprising in this text. If you don't, then the long and short of this book is that incentives don't always do what you think they will do. Internal motivation will drive people to do things that would be impossible otherwise, and you can't get it with financial incentives.

While I didn't find this book full of original insight, it has its meri...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Stephen Joyce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: popular-science

Money doesn’t work. That’s the conclusion of this fascinating book that aims to revolutionise thinking on how businesses motivate employees.

The book’s thesis builds on comprehensive social and behavioural science research published over the last 40 years but largely ignored by the business community. Social scientist Daniel H Pink creates a coherent argument in favour of a new operating model, Motivation 3.0, an evolutionary jump from Motivation 1.0 (base survival) and Motivation 2.0 (external...more Money doesn’t work. That’s the conclusion of this fascinating book that aims to revolutionise thinking on how businesses motivate employees.

The book’s thesis builds on comprehensive social and behavioural science research published over the last 40 years but largely ignored by the business community. Social scientist Daniel H Pink creates a coherent argument in favour of a new operating model, Motivation 3.0, an evolutionary jump from Motivation 1.0 (base survival) and Motivation 2.0 (external rewards and punishments).

‘Carrot and stick’ style reward structures can still be effective for low-skilled, mechanistic tasks but not for those that require right brain, creative thinking.
Heuristic tasks require focus and free thought. A cluster of behavioural science studies show that paying people to do better is damaging because money becomes a distraction, limits creativity and encourages excessive risk taking (the 2008 financial crisis is mentioned).

Cash incentives do not work for conceptual problems or creating innovative solutions. Money is only a threshold motivator; a base salary is crucial for getting people to turn up at work and taking the issue of financial reward off the table. Beyond that, the promise of big bonuses etc. is counter productive.

So what really drives people to produce their best work?

Pink identifies three key motivators. They are all intrinsic rather than extrinsic, i.e. they emerge from within. This makes them incredibly powerful.

First, Autonomy: we have an innate desire to take control over our own lives and work – the time we spend, the task itself and how we do it. This is not shallow ‘empowerment’ as implemented by some companies in recent years. Real autonomy involves a level of employee trust that seems way beyond most current managers would countenance, e.g. no set working hours or methods.

Second, Mastery: the satisfaction from being extremely proficient and skilled at something. Those who are allowed to pursue brilliance tend to be more engaged and higher achievers.

Third, Purpose: we need meaning in work, the ability to contribute to something larger than ourselves. It is an “emotional catalyst” to individual outperformance, that can be obtained simply from the goals and policies of an organisation being defined and articulated in the right way.

Currently, there is a mismatch between what science knows about these drivers and what business does to satisfy them. Evidence is ignored because it is apparently counter intuitive. Pink proposes to create alignment between what (less)

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About Daniel H. Pink

Daniel H. Pink is the author of a trio of provocative, bestselling books on the changing world of work: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, and Free Agent Nation. His next book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, will be published in 2010.

Dan's articles on business and technology appear in many publications, including The...more

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Books by Daniel H. Pink

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need

Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself

The Seven Dirty Words of the Free Agent Workforce

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“The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive—and autonomy can be the antidote.” TOM KELLEY General Manager, IDEO” — 14 people liked it

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.” — 10 people liked it

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