Title: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Author: Daniel H. Pink
Web site / Videos / Twitter
How I got the book: Amazon.com
How long it took to read: 170 minutes / 4 reading sessions
Read cover-to-cover: yes / NO
Favorite quotes (Page # and line):
28: As Frey writes, “Intrinsic motivation is of great importance for all economic activities. It is inconceivable that people are motivated solely or even mainly by external incentives.”
51: Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations to do narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization.
64: Offer a rationale for why the task is necessary. A job that’s not inherently interesting can become more meaningful, and therefore more engaging, if it’s part of a larger purpose.
*67: First, consider nontangible rewards. Praise and feedback are much less corrosive than cash and trophies. In fact, in Deci’s original experiments, and in his subsequent analysis of other studies, he found that “positive feedback can have an enhancing effect on intrinsic motivation.”
78: Type I behavior is made, not born. These behavioral patterns aren’t fixed traits. They are proclivities that emerge from circumstance, experience, and context.
79: Type I’s almost always outperform Type X’s in the long run. Intrinsically motivated people usually achieve more than their reward-seeking counterparts. Alas, that’s not always true in the short term.
104: Whatever your place in the birth order, consider what it’s like to be the third child in a family. You don’t get a say in choosing the people around you. They’re there when you arrive. Worse, one or two of them might not be so glad to see you.
133: In other words, in America alone, one hundred boomers turn sixty every thirteen minutes.
159: Remember that deliberate practice has one objective: to improve performance.
My Take Away: What does drive us, really, to want to engage, improve and be our best? This is what Dan and I talked about a while back (video here). In his book, written in 3 parts, he outlines some of the things that might surprise you about motivation.
So, in the comments below: What's YOUR motivation? (The first question I asked Dan in the interview!)
PS: If you haven’t yet, I HIGHLY recommend you watch this video.
What a terrific conversation!
Listening to you both wax about work methods and process was inspiring, and I so appreciate the workflow tips. From now on, I'll be taking off my glasses during phone calls that do not require note-taking (Dan, my prescription is just as bad as yours -- maybe even worse!).
And yes, it's so important to remember that our ideas and philosophies can be shaped IN the writing process rather than having to be determined before opening our laptops.
Thanks again, guys.
Posted by: Saidandsung | February 05, 2011 at 04:32 PM