The Surprising Science of Motivation

I just finished watching a TED talk by Dan Pink called the “the surprising science of motivation.”  Dan’s talk is a 15 minute summary of his book, Drive, which tackles the same topic in much more detail.  The basic premise that Dan makes is that when it comes to motivating employees, “there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”

Dan makes the case that the “carrot and stick” approach to motivation (work hard-get promoted-make more money; work bad-don’t get anywhere-get fired) was designed for the mechanical and repetitive tasks of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Today, these kinds of activities have largely been automated or outsourced (manufacturing line work, accounting, tax submissions, basic software coding, software QA, etc.). What is left for us (those in the technology startup world) are the tasks that require extreme innovation.

Innovation requires the type of work that is much more conceptual and creative. The right-side-of-the-brain type of work. The carrot and stick approach to motivation in this case simply does not work. In fact, studies that Dan refer to show that in the case of cognitive work, the higher the compensation, the worst the results.

Innovation requires the presence of a different kind of motivation. Yes, we all aspire to become rich through our statups. But is getting rich the primary motivator, or is it the end result of our pursuits?  I say it’s the latter.

So how do we motivate employees to excel through innovation and creativity? Try intrinsic motivation. How? Watch Dan’s video and read his book. He explains it a lot better than I can!