The Royal Society of Art (RSA) in London collaborated with illustrator Andrew Park to animate talks given at RSA. This amazing video takes an excerpt from Daniel Pink’s lecture on “Drive: The Truth About What Motivates Us” and visually brings Pink’s key points to life.
Mr. Pink weaves a story of insights and real world examples that illustrates three factors that lead to better personal performance and personal satisfaction.
- Autonomy. Our desire to be self directed — to use our judgment and creativity and to direct our own lives. Management is great if you want compliance. If you want engagement, self direction is better. Pink shares a great story about a software company.
- Mastery. The urge to get better at stuff is part of who we are. People do things all the time and they don’t get paid — they practice and spend time doing it because it’s fun, satisfying. Challenge and mastery along with making a contribution — that’s why people do it.
- Purpose. More and more organizations want a purpose — a transcendent purpose that goes beyond profit. It makes coming to work better and it’s a way to get better talent. When the profit motive gets unmoored from the purpose motive, bad things happen. Crappy products, lame services, uninspiring places to work.
If we start treating people like people and not assuming they are simply horses—slower, smaller, better smelling horses. If we can get past this ideology of carrots and sticks and look at the science, we can build organizations and work lifes that make us better off and make the world a little bit better. ~Dan Pink
I get inspired by information like this. I’ve been a researcher and practitioner of change management for years and I’m so bored with the conventional research and approaches that treat people like they’re 12 year olds that “resist change.” My philosophy is that change, when designed right, people will follow – willingly engage even. When organizations start treating people like people, they foster an environment that is open to change, embraces change, and creates change.
To my U.S.A. readers, have a safe and fun 4th of July!
~Melissa
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Hi, Melissa!
Once again, a great post. Pink's book is fascinating and articulates so well what I believe many people have been feeling. Work is all about people, and appreciating their psychological drives needs to be a fundamental aspect of leading & managing.
I continue to admire your stance on traditional approaches to change, and I agree. The horse has been beaten throughly – it's time to bury it. I think there's a new paradigm emerging, and works like Pink's are he;lping to create that vanguard.
Hi David,
Thanks for the comments! Your web site looking fine!
~Melissa