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January 7 - January 14, 2021
namely “that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”
“If-then” rewards require people to forfeit some of their autonomy.
“People use rewards expecting to gain the benefit of increasing another person’s motivation and behavior, but in so doing, they often incur the unintentional and hidden cost of undermining that person’s intrinsic motivation toward the activity.”
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.
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when the Italian government gave blood donors paid time off work, donations increased.
Enron sets lofty revenue goals—and the race to meet them by any means possible catalyzes the company’s collapse.
One reason most parents showed up on time is that they had a relationship with the teachers—who, after all, were caring for their precious sons and daughters—and wanted to treat them fairly. Parents had an intrinsic desire to be scrupulous about punctuality. But the threat of a fine—like the promise of the kronor in the blood experiment—edged aside that third drive. The fine shifted the parents’ decision from a partly moral obligation (be fair to my kids’ teachers) to a pure transaction (I can buy extra time).
By offering a reward, a principal signals to the agent that the task is undesirable. (If the task were desirable, the agent wouldn’t need a prod.) But
Allow people to complete the task their own way. Think autonomy, not control. State the outcome you need. But instead of specifying precisely the way to reach it—how each poster must be rolled and how each mailing label must be affixed—give them freedom over how they do the
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Amabile also discovered that when the artists considered their commissions “enabling”—that is, “the commission enabled the artist to do something interesting or exciting”3—the creativity ranking of what they produced shot back up. The same was true for commissions the artists felt provided them with useful information and feedback about their ability.
If these elements are in place, the best strategy is to provide a sense of urgency and significance—and
The essential requirement: Any extrinsic reward should be unexpected and offered only after the task is complete.
and the more the praise is about effort and strategy rather than about achieving a particular outcome—the more effective it can be.
When to Use Rewards: A Simple Flowchart
people oriented toward autonomy and intrinsic motivation have higher self-esteem, better interpersonal relationships, and greater general well-being
Ultimately, Type I behavior depends on 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.
These bosses saw issues from the employee’s point of view, gave meaningful feedback and information, provided ample choice over what to do and how to do it, and encouraged employees to take on new projects.
autonomy 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,
Motivation 3.0 begins with a different assumption. It presumes that people want to be accountable—and that making sure they have control over their task, their time, their technique, and their team is the most effective pathway to that destination.
HOw to give autonomy
Csikszentmihalyi (his last name is pronounced “chick-sent-me-high”)
In an autotelic experience, the goal is self-fulfilling; the activity is its own reward. Painters he observed during his Ph.D. research, Csikszentmihalyi said, were so enthralled in what they were doing that they seemed to be in a trance.
Experience Sampling Method. Csikszentmihalyi would page people eight times a day at random intervals and ask them to write in a booklet their answers to several short questions about what they were doing, who they were with, and how they’d describe their state of mind.
Most important, in flow, the relationship between what a person had to do and what he could do was perfect.
the Sawyer Effect. Recall from Chapter 2 that extrinsic rewards can turn play into work.
It’s grueling, to be sure. But that’s not the problem; that’s the solution.
Two days. Forty-eight hours without flow plunged people into a state eerily similar to a serious psychiatric disorder.
The days that people make progress are the days they feel most motivated and engaged.
A brief reminder of the purpose of their work doubled their performance.
business, we tend to obsess over the “how”—as in “Here’s how to do it.” Yet we rarely discuss the “why”—as in “Here’s why we’re doing it.”
“A great man,” she told him, “is a sentence.” Abraham Lincoln’s sentence was: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.” Franklin Roosevelt’s was: “He lifted us out of a Great Depression and helped us win a world
At the end of each day, ask yourself whether you were better today than you were yesterday.
So every seven years, Sagmeister closes his graphic design shop, tells his clients he won’t be back for a year, and goes off on a 365-day sabbatical. He uses the time to travel, to live in places he’s never been to, and to experiment with new projects.
Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. While many of us work on what we’re already good at, says Ericsson, “those who get better work on their weaknesses.”
Next time you’re about to say “must” or “should,” try saying “think about” or “consider” instead.
