Need for intrinsic motivation

-

    Recently I read Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink on my Amazon Kindle, and I believe this is among the best management books I have read so far. 

I want to summarize what I learned from the book. Genuine motivation has the following ingredients: autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Most people have the drive to accomplish more. During the industrial revolution of a century ago, rewards and punishments (carrot and stick) were seen as the only way to motivate people, but this may not be as relevant today. Rewards and punishments can even be counterproductive. Dangling a reward each time will make people more interested in it than the joy of accomplishing a task. A kid motivated with a prize for a drawing may lose interest in drawing after winning the prize, and it works similarly for adults. Companies must not rely on bonuses and awards for motivating employees. Wholistic feedback is more helpful than a reward. Rewards do not have any additional benefit when there are no concerns about the employee pay. Rewards foster unnecessary competition and kill cooperation between employees. It is better to reserve awards for more repetitive work than for the work which requires more creativity and problem-solving skills.

Autonomy: Work is less repetitive and more intellectually satisfying for the people employed by the new-age companies. Greater work autonomy helps us produce the best results. Even the repetitive work will be enjoyable if the employee can choose the way to accomplishing it.

ROWE (result-only work environment) focuses on results instead of schedule and work hours. The employee has more flexibility which in turn can help them achieve more. Also, it increases satisfaction among employees and reduces employee turnaround.

Flow is a moment of intense focus. Companies must devise ways to help employees achieve flow. That intense eye-on-the-task moment is a meditative zen state. It helps see accomplishing the work itself as a reward and doesn't require external rewards.

Mastery: Achieving mastery in what we do is one of the primary human drives. Artists, sportspersons, and skilled professionals have always strived for it in what they do. Mastery is unattainable, but people can get close to it with their best efforts, and striving hard and long to get the closest to it is probably the greatest of rewards. Earning money for what we do is a mere necessity and less gratifying than striving to achieve mastery.

Purpose: See purpose in what you do, even if it is dull, boring, and repetitive at times.

Title image source - the internet

Related articles:

The ability to learn is the key to survival. We can learn faster by learning from each other.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YAML front matter in Typora

-
Image
     I was looking for ways to add a cover page, header, and footer in Markdown and just figured out how we do it in Typora Markdown editor. It is easy. Set the header and footer using YAML Front Matter. The YAML front matter must be the first thing in the file and must be valid YAML, set between triple-dashed lines.  Source: https://support.typora.io/ The following is an example for setting the document title, header, and footer using YAML: --- title: Agile Technical Documentation header: A Quick Guide for Agile Technical Documentation footer: ${pageNo} --- Apart from this, you need to make a few PDF export settings. Select File > Preferences > Export > PDF and select the checkbox for Read and overwrite export settings from YAMAL front matters . Now, the document exported into PDF will have A Quick Guide for Agile Technical Documentation in its header and page number in its footer. If you need a cover page as well for the PDF export, paste the following content in the Ap
Read more

Technical Writing essentials

-
Image
     I want to share some of my learnings starting from the beginning days of my Technical Writing career. Everyone in the project must have a cursory understanding of the following, and the Technical Writer must understand it in detail: Language standards Learn the style guides. MSTP (Microsoft Manual of Style - currently called Microsoft Style Guide) is among the most widely followed style guides. You can access it online for free and even download the PDF for offline reference. See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/welcome/ There are several other style guides, but it is mostly enough to refer only to Microsoft Style Guide. The following are some of the key takeaways: Avoid passive voice - sentences in passive voice are generally longer and harder to read. Use only the simple and easy words understood by the global audience with varying degrees of English knowledge. Your writing must have the same meaning for all people from different geographies and cultures. Never use a
Read more

Apply Goldilocks principle

-
Image
     There is one thing universal about successful managers. They keep increasing the performance benchmark every time. It applies to an athletic coach who wants to make his trainee globally competitive. I have worked under cruelly kind managers who are very ruthless in getting the tasks done. They push you to improve your competency and skills every day. You may have had a tough time working under this manager, and still, it is not something to be resented. Weathers the pressures work? We start looking for ways to do things better when the competitive edge is so narrow, and even a marginal improvement in something will give you an edge over your competitors. I had my dilemmas over if harsh managers are good or bad. A good manager sets difficult but attainable benchmarks and allows members to execute tasks with relative autonomy. There is no use flogging a dead horse. Spend time grooming the people who are motivated to do their best. I have spent time with people who do not have enough
Read more