Friday, October 22, 2010

Drive - What Motivates Us? A Video by Daniel Pink


My good friend, Rick Mavrovich, spends a lot of time reading, watching and thinking about important issues. He is often kind enough to share insights and resources with his friends. So, I was delighted when he passed along the link that you find below of Daniel Pink sharing some remarkable results of research into what motivates individuals to perform at exceptional levels.

The findings are astounding and largely counter-intuitive. I will cut to the "Chase" and tell you that money ends up being a negative motivator once the person in question has enough money to pay the bills and sustain a reasonable lifestyle. And if the task at hand rises beyond the level of merely mechanical and repetitive, requiring some cognition and creativity, money becomes even less of a positive motivating force.

The three factors that do prove to provide powerful positive motivation - verified by countless studies in the fields of psychology, sociology and economics - are:

Autonomy - Opportunity for Mastery - Purpose

It is no surprise, then, that Rick Warren's landmark book, "The Purpose Driven Life," met with such wide acceptance.

The ramifications of these findings are far-flung - impacting each one of us who acts in a coaching, teaching, managing, parenting, mentoring role.

I commend to you Daniel Pink's memorable video:


Daniel Pink Video

No comments: