“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one’s sights and pushing toward the horizon” – Daniel Pink
What is intrinsic motivation? #
Oh, the joy of doing something purely because it makes us feel accomplished and satisfied!
Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence.
When intrinsically motivated, a person is moved to act for the fun or challenge entailed rather than because of external products, pressures, or rewards.
In his book, Drive, Daniel Pink focuses on intrinsic motivation and explains that our intrinsic motivation is powered by our third drive, made up of the 3 elements of genuine motivation:
- the need for Autonomy -our inbuilt need to direct our own lives,
- the need for Mastery – the urge to get better and better at something that matters; and
- the need for Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.
Mankind has progressed from the basic need for survival (drive 1) and now beyond the need to seek reward and avoid punishment through cooperation in groups (drive 2), to our third drive.
The background to this has been and will continue to be shaped by the world of work.
Over the past 50 or 60 years, work has shifted away from being algorithmic, where a set of instructions are followed to reach one result to heuristic, where there is no known method and solutions are found by trial and error. We increasingly work in situations where we experiment with possibilities and devise a novel solution.
Algorithmic or routine work can be either outsourced offshore to the cheapest location or automated by clever software. Heuristic or creative work cannot.
Motivation 2 #
Motivation 2 (the carrot and stick) method rests on the belief that work is not inherently enjoyable which is why a team must be coaxed with external rewards and threatened with outside punishment. As our work becomes more enjoyable, then these external inducements become less relevant. We require less direction and become more self-directed.
However, we cannot ignore money. The starting point for any discussion of motivation is people need to earn a living through baseline rewards: salary, contract payments, benefits and perks. If baseline rewards aren’t met, there will be very little motivation. But once we are past this threshold, carrots and sticks can achieve precisely the opposite of their intended aims.
For creative tasks, monetary incentives designed to clarify thinking and sharpen creative focus ended up clouding thinking and dulling creativity because they narrow our focus.
If-then rewards usually do more harm than good when used in these situations. By neglecting the ingredients of genuine motivation – autonomy, mastery and purpose – they limit what each of us can achieve.
The goals paradox #
We are designed to be active and engaged.
The author asks whether goals still work. The answer is, yes but with a caveat!
Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals set by others can often have dangerous side-effects by blinkering the wide-ranging thinking to reach an innovative solution and by encouraging unethical behaviour.
We know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we are clamouring 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.
Dan Pink’s book is a masterpiece of insightful thinking and the conclusion I reached is that we now have permission (if permission was ever needed) to go out and follow our own path.
Dan’s book #
Here’s the Amazon link to Drive, if you wish to find out more or buy it:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0033TI4BW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Thank you for reading.
