Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

by Daniel H. Pink

“When money is used as an external reward for some activity, the subjects lose intrinsic interest for the activity,” he wrote.5 Rewards can deliver a short-term boost—just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off—and, worse, can reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project.

Human beings, Deci said, have an “inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore, and to learn.”

our third drive—our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

two key factors determined how people fared on the job. The first were “hygiene” factors—extrinsic rewards such as pay, working conditions, and job security. Their absence created dissatisfaction, but their presence didn’t lead to job satisfaction. The second were “motivators”—things like enjoyment of the work itself, genuine achievement, and personal growth. These internal desires were what really boosted both satisfaction and performance and were where managers ought to focus their attention.

enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive driver.”

we are irrational—and predictably so, says economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, a book that offers an entertaining and engaging overview of behavioral economics.

“Intrinsic motivation is of great importance for all economic activities. It is inconceivable that people are motivated solely or even mainly by external incentives.”

Routine, not-so-interesting jobs require direction; nonroutine, more interesting work depends on self-direction.

Only contingent rewards—if you do this, then you’ll get that—had the negative effect. Why? “If-then” rewards require people to forfeit some of their autonomy.

extrinsic rewards can be effective for algorithmic tasks—those that depend on following an existing formula to its logical conclusion. But for more right-brain undertakings—those that demand flexible problem-solving, inventiveness, or conceptual understanding—contingent rewards can be dangerous. Rewarded subjects often have a harder time seeing the periphery and crafting original solutions.

Adding a monetary incentive didn’t lead to more of the desired behavior. It led to less. The reason: It tainted an altruistic act and “crowded out” the intrinsic desire to do something good.

Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others—sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores, and so on—can sometimes have dangerous side effects.

For complex or conceptual tasks, offering a reward can blinker the wide-ranging thinking necessary to come up with an innovative solution. Likewise, when an extrinsic goal is paramount—particularly a short-term, measurable one whose achievement delivers a big payoff—its presence can restrict our view of the broader dimensions of our behavior.

For routine tasks, which aren’t very interesting and don’t demand much creative thinking, rewards can provide a small motivational booster shot without the harmful side effects.

Any extrinsic reward should be unexpected and offered only after the task is complete.

“positive feedback can have an enhancing effect on intrinsic motivation.”

The more feedback focuses on specifics (“great use of color”)—and the more the praise is about effort and strategy rather than about achieving a particular outcome—the more effective it can be.

competence, autonomy, and relatedness. When those needs are satisfied, we’re motivated, productive, and happy.

Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another.

But one reason fair and adequate pay is so essential is that it takes people’s focus off money, which allows them to concentrate on the work itself.

our basic nature is to be curious and self-directed.

“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

The businesses that offered autonomy grew at four times the rate of the control-oriented firms and had one-third the turnover.

Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.

people working in self-organized teams are more satisfied than those working in inherited teams.

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

mastery—the desire to get better and better at something that matters.

“The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business.”

the desire for intellectual challenge—that is, the urge to master something new and engaging—was the best predictor of productivity.

giving children a performance goal (say, getting a high mark on a test) was effective for relatively straightforward problems but often inhibited children’s ability to apply the concepts to new situations.

“grit”—defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.”

“Whereas the importance of working harder is easily apprehended, the importance of working longer without switching objectives may be less perceptible . . . in every field, grit may be as essential as talent to high accomplishment.”

“Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.”

The joy is in the pursuit more than the realization. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because mastery eludes.

the single greatest motivator is “making progress in one’s work.”

Their goal is to pursue purpose—and to use profit as the catalyst rather than the objective.

A brief reminder of the purpose of their work doubled their performance.

attainment of a particular set of goals [in this case, profit goals] has no impact on well-being and actually contributes to ill-being.”

A healthy society—and healthy business organizations—begins with purpose and considers profit a way to move toward that end or a happy by-product of its attainment.

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.

So before you go to sleep each night, ask yourself the small question: Was I a little better today than yesterday?

“What you decide not to do is probably more important than what you decide to do.”

On one of the cards, write your answer to this question: “What gets you up in the morning?” Now, on the other side of the card, write your answer to another question: “What keeps you up at night?”

An essential ingredient in achieving mastery is getting feedback on how you’re doing.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age,

Agile Project Management by Jim Highsmith and Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins.

Lead with results.

once commissions were no longer around, collaboration and commitment increased.

We’re bribing students into compliance instead of challenging them into engagement.