Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live. Goodreads description
I thought the last few parts of the book that discussed frameworks and how to test company autonomy were interesting. I wonder how high the level of autonomy would be if everyone took the quiz at Clear Star compared to my bartender job at Uni.
The idea of Type I and Type X motivation caught my attention. Money motivation can run out but purpose driven motivation stays.
Overall, it is worth reading, especially if you struggle with Drive or struggle to find what makes you flow, as we will hopefully found out more on in the next book club.
Here’s my thoughts:
I admit, I’m not a great reader of books, I much prefer visual learning, or audiobooks, but I have read this book several times over the years and my stand-out favourite thing about this book, is the fact that you can start at the back of the book and read backwards.
If you want the ‘tweet’ synopsises, it’s there at the back, if you want the one paragraph version, there it is. Read further back, and you’ll the synopsis of each of the chapters, which can signpost you to where you can find the scientific/academic research that underpins the recommendations made by Dan Pink. It’s a book for everyone in that sense.
Just as importantly for me, are the 50+ pages dedicated to the ‘Toolkit’ (again at the back of the book!) where there are great practical examples for experimenting with some of the theory and recommendations made in the book. It’s not just a book to read, it’s a great addition for tools to ‘drive’ change into any organisation. It even provides great insight into when the tools shouldn’t be applied, or the circumstance where the tools may have greater impact. It’s definitely a book written for page markers!
As for the main topics of the new framework Pink presents as Motivation 3.0, I’d loved the importance attributed to understanding Autonomy is not something ‘granted’ or ‘given’ to people. To enable the intrinsic motivation in humans to be self-directing others need to remove the barriers to increase engagement over compliance.
Similarly, explaining how Purpose operates at multiple levels within humans, and what it means to people to have a purpose. Be that an individual, team or organisational purpose, even a shared purpose with others you do not know, is amazingly powerful. For me, this sits at the heart of what I think about, when I talk to others about ‘insurgency movements’ and the ability of societies to make change beyond the traditional structured boundaries that constrain large-scale change.
Lastly, Mastery; it really resonated with me, when Pink makes the assertion that education systems and businesses have failed to recognise the importance of offering the opportunities for mastery. Providing the challenges that stretch abilities, develop skills and enable continuous improvement, so that people can find a mental ‘flow’ state in a deeply held aspect of human behaviour.