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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 People don't lead people, people lead themselves!Mar 12, 2010
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
My name is David Marquet, from Practicum, Inc and we help our customers structure their organizations to maximize the potential of their people. We call this leadership. When we talk with our clients one of the things we ask them is "do you need your boss to motivate you?" Very few people raise their hands. Thus, it wasn't a surprise to read in Daniel Pink's recent book, Drive, that people do not respond best to external motivation.
Pink's book is very helpful because it clearly illuminates and explains what we've observed - that external motivation ends up feeling like manipulation and that people will do better in a structure that allows them to find their own intrinsic sources of motivation.
What are the characteristics of those structures? Pink tells us they are structures that enable individual autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In our practice, we had been emphasizing control, competence, and connection as being important. While control parallels autonomy and mastery parallels autonomy, purpose is an element we had not singled out.
We think Pink is right, though. Connecting your activity to a higher purpose does give people a reason beyond the immediate that seems necessary to sustain enduring loyalty to the mission. This was particularly true aboard submarines, where crews that understood how their tasks, however difficult, supported a greater goal (defending the Constitution, for example), performed better.
Drive is a quick read and we recommend it.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 DriveMar 11, 2010
Excellent for anyone interesed in motivating people: adults or children. A must read for educators!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
DRiVEMar 10, 2010
As a career law enforcement officer and retired Sheriff I conduct training for law enforcement agencies on a regular basis. Leadership, management and human resources are the areas I consult in most often so the topic of motivation is always in our discussions; espcially when we are dealing with change and sustaining that change. I thought that DRiVE was right down our alley and I will use information found in the book in our future classes.
A real problem in government is that many people get their jobs and think they can just die there. They get civil service protection and simply show up, walk around a little and go home at the end of the day. It zaps the life out of coworkers and the organizations. When a real worker gets hired and wants to get production under way, they find it difficult because of the many employees who don't want change and don't want their boat rocked. So how do we motivate these people since in many cases we are stuck with them in some fashion.
Pink's ideas have given me tools to share with supervisors, managers and leaders in these organizations to help them become change agents and get things done in the most effective and efficient way. I appreciate his research, thought processes and willingness to share with us.
Great Book!
Rod Shoap
Encore Security Professionals
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful read after a long time!Mar 05, 2010
Excellent book - gave a great understanding beneath why we do certan kinds of things indifferently or with passion. Great read in general. Actually this is a great book for parents :-) it will change the whole way you see your child. I am thinking if the same kind of motivation is apt for canines too as increasingly reward(read treat) based training is in picture nowadays..wonderful book!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Terrific bookMar 04, 2010
"Drive" is an excellent take on what motivates people in modern society compared with times past. Things it covers are:
1. A couple of decades ago rhesus monkeys solved a puzzle without a reward of food, water or sex. They began playing with it and solved it, implying a thrid drive - some intrinsic reward. They even made more errors when an external reward was used - raisens. Then, more recently similar results were found in an experiment (a Soma puzzle) with humans, implying humans also have this third, intrinsic, drive - for novelty, challenge, with scientific proof counter to what business usally does to motivate workers.
2. Like computers, societies have operating systems - a) Motivation 1.0 - in older times just for survival, b) Motivation 2.0 - the industrial revolution led to rewards and punishments, carrots and sticks to motivate workers, c) Motivation 2.1 - some refinements like flex hours and casual dress, d) Motivation 3.0 - purpose driven rather than monetary compensation - think Wikipedia versus Microsoft's Encarta encyclopedia, Firefox, Apache web server, Linix. Strongest motivation - enjoyment. Vermont - first state to implement a new business organization, "low profit limited liability corporation" with purpose maximized rather than profit.
4. Behavioral economics shows people motivated also by irrational motives. US census showed many non-employer businesses. Financial rewards can turn play into work - reducing performance, loss of creativity. - the Sawyer Effect.
5. Extrinsic rewards can work for left-brain algorithmic tasks, but not for right-brain flexible problem-solving, creative solutions - can lead to bad, even unethical behavior and sort-term thinking like what led to the recent Great Recession - too much pay caused epic problems. Goals which lead to mastery are good - rewarding the activity better than rewarding the result.
6. Rewards best if unexpected, not if-then but now-that.
7. Self Determination Theory (SDT) - Type I person - 3 needs of a Type I person: a) autonomy - over 4 T's - task, time, technoque, and team, b) mastery - a flow - 3 laws to get in the flow - mindset, pain, asymptote - getting closer and closer to perfection but never reaching it, c) purpose - words are important like having an oath, when an employee says "we" rather than "they" for the company.
8. Toolkit for a Type I person - a) flow test - one sentence for a person like freed the slaves for Lincoln, b) small question - like was today better than yesterday, c) take a "sagmeiter" - a sabbatical like every 7 years - do something different like travel, d) do annual personal performance reviews, e) get unstuck by going oblique - by pushing out of a mental rut, f) move 5 steps closer to mastery - deliberate practice, g) 3x5 cards with question/answer to give meaning to each day, h) create your own motivational poster.
9. Nine ways to get your organization to be Type I - have 20% free time, encourage peer-peer now-that rewards, conduct an autonomy audit, take 3 steps to giving up control, play "whose purpose is it?", Reich's pronoun test - we or they, design for intrinsic motivation, Goldilocks for groups - not too easy, not too hard tasks, turn offsite into "FedEx day."
10. Type I compensation - get it right then get out of sight. Ensure internal, external fairness - harder job gets paid more, etc. Pay more than average.
11. Tips for parents on how to motivate kids: homework - autonomy, mastery, purpose, have a FedEx day, Do It Yourself (DIY) report cards, don't combine allowances and chores, praise strategy and effort not IQ, let kids see the big picture of things.
Overall, this book is very insightful and an easy read - recommended.
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based on 75 reviews
