Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us (Pink, 1995) is not exactly ground-breaking but provides a helpful summary of how our views of what motivates has changed. He provides summaries of past models that were used in many organizations to get commitment to specific work or tasks (e.g. carrot and stick), cites newer research that challenges these previous models, and goes on to apply a new way of motivating to a variety of settings – work, families, and self.
One of the most prominent strategies to motivate is reward. Businesses, in particular, use compensation to attract commitment and then reward it with compensation. The only problem with this model is that it only results in a short-term boost, an effect that wears off and may even contribute to long-term ambivalence. The opposite of reward, of course, is punishment. The combination of reward and punishment has seven deadly flaws; according to Pink they can extinguish intrinsic motivation, diminish performance, crush creativity, encourage cheating, become addictive, and foster primarily short-term thinking.
Pink draws a contrast between Type I, “I” for intrinsic desire, and Type X, “X” for external drive. Research on Type I motivation concludes that it almost always contributes to higher performance, is both born and bred, is independent of compensation, is renewable, and generates greater physical and mental well-being. Type I organization cultures have three key elements that help to reinforce the intrinsic desire to contribute; autonomy (which can be supported by a ROWE, results-only work environment, that focuses on task, time, technique, and team); mastery (which relies heavily on Czikszentmihalyi’s “flow” research, and includes mastery of mindset, of pain, and as an asymptote), and purpose (the pursuit of something that is central to an individual’s ultimate concerns.
A toolkit is included in Drive to help readers apply Pink’s ideas in practice. Key to the toolkit is for managers/leaders to give up control. Giving up control in constructive ways includes; involving people in goal-setting, using non-controlling language, and holding open office hours. Most important of all is for managers to ask “Whose purpose is it anyway?” If the answer is outside of the people who the manager is attempting to motivate, then fundamental rethinking should be undertaken.
Compensation (or reward) is neither as powerful as some think nor is it negligible in impact. The way to focus compensation in ways that are consistent with Pink’s recommendations include; ensuring internal and external fairness, pay more than the average, and define performance metrics broadly.
The bottom line in motivation for Pink are the “three essentials elements: (1) Autonomy – the desire to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery – the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters; and (3) Purpose – the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves” (p. 218).
