Drive - Daniel H. Pink

 

3rd of 2021, this was a gift from Sharyn in 2015, had read then, but did not blog, and there was a need to revisit. So here goes the learning and few terms from the book:

Motivation 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0: The motivational operating systems or sets of assumptions and protocols about how the world works and how human behave, that run beneath our laws, economic arrangements and business practices. Motivation 1.0 presumed that humans where biological creatures, struggling for survival. Motivation 2.0 presumed that human also responded to rewards and punishments in their environment. Motivation 3.0 the upgrade that we now need, presumes that humans also have a third drive - to learn, to create, and to better the world. 

Results-only work environment (ROWE) : The brainchild of two American consultants, a ROWE is a workplace in which employees don't have schedules. They don't have to be in office at a certain time or any time. They just have to get their work done. 

Sawyer Effect: A weird behavioral alchemy inspired by the scene in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer in which tom and friends white wash Aunt Polly's fence. This effect has two aspects. The negative rewards can turn play into work. The positive focusing on mastery can turn work into play. 

Based on studies done at MIT and other universities, higher pay and bonuses resulted in better performance ONLY if the task consisted of basic, mechanical skills. It worked for problems with a defined set of steps and a single answer. If the task involved cognitive skills, decision-making, creativity, or higher-order thinking, higher pay resulted in lower performance. As a supervisor, you should pay employees enough that they are not focused on meeting basic needs and feel that they are being paid fairly. If you don’t pay people enough, they won’t be motivated. Pink suggests that you should pay enough “to take the issue of money off the table.”

The Book is divided into three parts:

Part 1: A New Operating System

Like computers societies also have operating system, The laws, social customs and economic arrangements that we encounter each day sit atop a layer of instructions,  protocols and suppositions about how the world works. and much of our societal operating system consists of set of assumptions about human behavior. 

Looks at the flaws in the reward and punishment system and propose a new way to think about motivation. Traditional business aimed at profit maximization and there Motivation 2 fitted in, new entities are purpose maximisers  and are unsuited to older operating system because they flout its very principles. 

Chapter 1  examines how the prevailing view of motivation is becoming incompatible with many aspects of contemporary business and life.

Chapter 2 reveals the seven reason,  why carrot and stick produce the opposite result of what they set out to achieve. The seven deadly flaws are:

1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation
2. They can diminish performance
3. They  can crush creativity
4. They can crowd out good behavior
5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behavior.
6.  They can become addictive
7. They can foster short-term thinking. 

Chapter 2a shows the special circumstances where Carrot and Stick can be effective. They are routine jobs. Consider nontangible rewards, provide useful information. 

Chapter 3 Introduces us to the concepts of Type X and Type I our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. 

Type X behavior: Behavior that is fueled more by extrinsic desires than intrinsic ones and that concerns itself less with the inherent satisfaction of an activity and more with the external rewards to which that activity leads. 

Type I behavior: A way of thinking and an approach to life built around intrinsic, rather than extrinsic, motivators. It is powered by our innate need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things and to do better by ourselves and our world.  More regarding Type I:

• They are made, not born
• They outperform Type X
• They do not desdain money or recognition
• They are renewable resource
• They promote greater physical and mental well being
• They are self directed and dependent on three nutrients viz. autonomy, mastery and purpose. 

Part 2: The Three Elements:

To motivate employees who work beyond basic tasks, Pink argues that supporting employees in the following three areas will result in increased performance and satisfaction:

Chapter 4 Autonomy — Our desire to be self directed. It increases engagement over compliance. This era calls for a renaissance of self-direction. Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over Task, Time, Technique, Team . i.e.on what people do, when they do it, how they do and whom they do it with. 

Chapter 5 Mastery — The urge to get better skills. The three laws of mastery are:

• Mastery is a mindset.
• Mastery is a pain
• Mastery is a asymptote

Complete mastery over anything is not possible .

Chapter 6 Purpose — The desire to do something that has meaning and is important. Businesses that only focus on profits without valuing purpose will end up with poor customer service and unhappy employees. We see the first stirring of this new purpose motive in three realms of organizational life - goals, words and policies. 

"One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself".

A central idea of this book has been the mismatch between what science know and what business does. The gap is wide and its existence is alarming. One reason for anxiety and depression in the high attainers is that they  are not having good relationships. They are busy making money and attending to themselves. We are not designed to be passive and complaint but to be active and engaged. The richest experiences in our lives aren't when we're clamoring for validation from others but when we're listening to our own voice - doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.  Repairing the mismatch and bringing our understanding of motivation into the 21st century is more than an essential move for business. It's an affirmation of our humanity. 

Part 3: The Type I Tool Kit:

Comprehensive set of resources to help create settings in which Type I behavior can flourish. Strategies for awakening motivation of Individual, organization; The zen compensation, Essential reading list. Recap, glossary and link.