The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us
256 pages
English language
Published Aug. 15, 2018
From Daniel H. Pink, the author of the groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, comes his next big idea book: a paradigm-changing examination of what truly motivates us and how to harness that knowledge to find greater satisfaction in our lives and our work.We've been conditioned to think that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is through external rewards like money—the carrot-and-the-stick approach. That's a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in his transformative new book. The key to high performance and satisfaction is intrinsic, internal motivation: the desire to follow your own interests and understand the benefits in them for you. And Pink has discovered thirty years of scientific data that confirm these ideas and show an exciting way forward.As he did in his groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, Pink lays out the hard science for these surprising insights, describes how people and corporations can embrace such …
From Daniel H. Pink, the author of the groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, comes his next big idea book: a paradigm-changing examination of what truly motivates us and how to harness that knowledge to find greater satisfaction in our lives and our work.We've been conditioned to think that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is through external rewards like money—the carrot-and-the-stick approach. That's a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in his transformative new book. The key to high performance and satisfaction is intrinsic, internal motivation: the desire to follow your own interests and understand the benefits in them for you. And Pink has discovered thirty years of scientific data that confirm these ideas and show an exciting way forward.As he did in his groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, Pink lays out the hard science for these surprising insights, describes how people and corporations can embrace such ideas (some of them are already doing it), offers details about how we can master them, and provides concrete examples on how intrinsic motivation works on the job, at home, and in ourselves.This is a book of big ideas that explains how each of us can find the surest pathway to high performance, creativity, and even health and well-being.
This book could be easily half as long as it is. It repeats itself a lot.
That said, there are a few interesting ideas and insights in there and it sparked a few thought processes for me, which is good.
Basics on intrinsic, self directed motivation. Why extrinsic carrot and sticks are bad in today's workplace and economy. We need autonomy, mastery and purpose. Good reading list and tool boxes for doing type I (intrinsic work). External rewards to work for algorithmic tasks but kill heuristic, creative work. Type I still care about money and recognition, but that's not the goal. Master is a pain , a mindset, and a asymptote.
The book does its own summary at the end. A twitter version, a cocktail party version, and a one paragraph per chapter version. The summary is all one needs to read. Intrinsic motivation vs extrinsic motivation was eye opening, it changed my thinking about rewards and especially badges on websites.
Quick read, with a noticeable mid-executive bent, but good pop summation of a lot of behaviorial research centered around self-determination theory, and a bottom line of "it's time businesses and organizations caught up with the science" of what motivates people.
