Daniel H. Pink's Blog, page 28

Photos, factoids, and more . . . from the UK

I'm in London (and Newcastle and Cambridge) this week, promoting the UK edition of Drive, which launched a few days ago. Below are a photo, an idea, a factoid, and a quote from the road.

PHOTO

To my amazement, Drive is #6 on the b.s. list at WH Smith, the giant retailer. Here's a photo showing the book in that exalted spot, ahead of books about cats and prostitutes and behind one by some bloke named Gladwell.

IDEA
This week, every daily edition of The Guardian comes with a 25-page booklet of...

Are you indispensable?

Seth Godin's new book, Linchpin, launches today. And like all of Seth's work, this one will rattle your neurons and rouse your heart.

As part of his effort to spark conversations, he's interviewed several other authors about their work — and how their ideas relate to his. Below is the interview Seth did with me on the connections between Linchpin and Drive.

GODIN: Your book Drive really got me excited. First, it's a great book. Second, it brings up a complementary point I totally missed! The...

Raises *do* matter

Monday's USA Today has a largely positive review of Drive ("fascinating . . . a powerhouse") that bears an unfortunate headline: "Raises Make Bad Motivators."

At the risk of sounding like a peevish author picking nits from the tangled hair of quickly forgotten reviews, let me do precisely that. Drive never says that raises aren't worthwhile. Far from it.

Yes, raises in the form of "If-then" rewards — "If you do something great, then you'll get a raise" — can be dangerous. But in general, I...

Emotionally intelligent signage . . . in an airport?

Herking and jerking through airport security these days is nobody's idea of fun. Jackets end up in tangled balls. Shoes and belts enter the X-ray, thendon't reappear. Gray bins collide, knocking laptops to the floor. The whole experience can be discombobulating.

Enter the good people at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport. As I discovered last week, workers there have given the post-security line patch of tattered carpet and stiff benches, where passengers can lace up their...

Factoid of the day: Don't look for the union label

"For the first time in American history," today's New York Times reports, "a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees."

Last year, the U.S. had 7.9 million unionized workers in the public sector and 7.4 million in private industry. Only 7. 2 percent of the private sector workforce belongs to a labor union, the lowest percentage since 1900.

(Source: NY Times, 1/23/10)

There's an app for, uh, anything

Okay. I've done it. I've created my own iPhone app. With the help of the amazing folks at Mobile Roadie, we've launched the official (sic) Daniel Pink app. You can download it — it's free! — from iTunes.

What's cool about apps in general, and this one in particular, is that they feel like web sites circa. 1995. Everyone's going to need one, but we're still frobbing around, trying to figure out how to make them maximally useful and effective. On that, I welcome — actually, I crave — your

Pictures from the road: Googleplex

Every so often, when I run through the streets near my Washington, DC, home, I see a truck that belongs to Rosa's Mobile Pet Grooming. Instead of bringing their pooch to the pet barber, people in my neighborhood can wait for Rosa's to come to then. I've always thought this was a good idea.

But on a recent visit to Google headquarters — which, I have to say, was very cool — I realized that I wasn't thinking big enough. Apparently, what's good for Fido and Fluffy is good for Larry and Sergei...

Pictures from the road: Los Angeles

If a place that looks like this has a line, you know the food will be good. But when you discover that the burritos cost just $4 and you have to eat them in a parking lot, you know the food will be really good. And it was. (2056 Hillhurst Ave, Los Angeles)

Will you be happier on Saturday?

Richard Ryan, one of the behavioral scientists whose research figures prominently in Drive, thinks you might be, according to a recently released paper.

But the reason for this "weekend effect" isn't leisure, he says. It's autonomy most of all — as well as the satisfaction that comes from emotional relationships.  On Saturdays and Sundays, he tells USA Today, "there's more connection with other people and more self-direction."

What's interesting about these findings is that they span across...

Quote of the Day: No limit for better

This weekend's Parade magazine features an interesting interview with mega-star Harrison Ford.

To my surprise, Ford spends little time talking about mega-ness or stardom. Instead, the carpenter-turned-actor offers some very keen insights on human motivation, especially the elusive and frustrating nature of mastery.

"When I was a carpenter, I once worked with this Russian lady architect. I would tell her, 'Look, I'm terribly sorry, but I want to change that a half inch,' and she would say, 'No...