I had the pleasure to read Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink for our group project. I think a lot of the ideas presented in this book were great and made a lot of sense, he talks a lot about the disparity between research in science and how businesses go about motivating people. Businesses nowadays put a lot of focus on rewards and punishment, something the author calls "carrots and sticks", without noticing that those things are actually hurting the performance instead of enhancing it in the long run. He then goes in to the two types of people, X & I, and the elements needed to become a Type I who follows this new way of working.

"The secret to high performance isn't our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive - our deep seated desire to direct our own loves, to extend and expand our abilities, and to make a contribution"

A lot of the time, people only look at biological drives and the use of rewards and punishments as the main drives for human behavior. They overlook the fact that there is this third drive, the fact that people will preform a task that they genuinely enjoy doing just because their incentive to doing it is that they love it. There is passion behind it. When you do something you love, your not worried about the external rewards, the reward is how the action makes you feel. It is intrinsic motivation, not external. But that is not what is going through the heads of most CEOs and bosses these days. It is true that jobs these days have become more complex and less "automatic" so to speak. Not as many jobs are rooted in routine work, they have started to really rely on creativity non-routine action that require self direction. This is where rewards and short term goals can be a bad thing instead of a good thing. Pink says that they narrow our focus and make the worker try and get to the reward the quickest way possible, even if that means cutting corners. If intrinsic motivation is involved, there is a good chance carrots and sticks are not the best option, unless the reward is unexpected.

"Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working towards them." 

- Carol Dweck

Pink teaches that there are two types of behavior in the world: people who practice type X behavior and those who practice type I. Type X is the type of behavior that most businesses seem to nourish, they are the people who are "fueled more by extrinsic desires that intrinsic ones". Type I is the opposite, they care more about satisfaction than reward. They are the type that outperforms in the long run, and Pink believes this type is the default behavior of all humans based on how children act. The society we live in teaches us how to be type X people. But there is good news, we can become type I people if we achieve 3 things. 

Autonomy.

 I always thought management would be so important and needed, but this book kind of changed my mind and made me thing about it a bit more. I said earlier that self direction is important, and therefore management becomes a problem with type 1 behavior. People have to have autonomy over what they are doing, when they do it, how they do it, and with whom they are doing the task with. If we manage our own selves, we care more about what we are doing and not worrying about the constraints placed upon us. 

Mastery.

"The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it's in the arts, sciences, or business" - Teresa Amabile

People do their best work when they reach flow. You reach this flow, or mastery, when you feel engaged in what you are doing. The best tasks to give a person to reach this mastery are tasks that are not too simple but not to challenging either. It is all in the joy in pursuit than reaching the end goal. 

 Purpose.

"We know that the richest experiences in our lives aren't when we are 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"

In being a person with type I behavior, we have to be doing something that gives us a purpose in life. We need to feel that what we are doing matters, and that we aren't just wasting our time in a day to day task.

Reading Drive really helped me to understand leadership better. It's not about management, it really is about relationships and trust in the people under you. One thing still holds true in my mind, something that I touched upon in my first blog, and that is the fact that being a good leader means you have to work to find the passion in others. Getting the task done is great, but the main goal is to get the people that you are leading to really love what they are doing - then you never have to worry about the task not being again, because it will get done if people love doing what they are doing and have the type I behavior. This is something that is similar between my outlook and Daniel Pink, and with this whole class I think. 

Before though, I thought the idea of rewards and punishments were something that came with leadership. You had to think of incentives to get people to do what you want them to do. And that still holds true, its just that there are better ways of doing that. I never really thought about rewards as being hurtful, same thing with goals. I thought they were necessary, not something that narrows our minds and puts us in a race so to speak. I firmly believe if you love what you do you won't cut corners like that, and you don't need a reward. 

Reading this book really made me think about myself and my career goals, and what I see myself doing. I never ever want to be in a type X role. I want to love what I am doing. When we talked about values, purpose was my top, so being in an environment where I can practice this type I behavior is critical. Work needs to be pleasurable!