Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Reviewed by Isobel Tynan

Prevailing organisational wisdom seems to be that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money, aka the carrot and stick approach. According to Daniel H Pink, author of  Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, that’s a big mistake. Rather, being motivated to achieve high performance and success in our professional and personal lives stems from the human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things and to do better by ourselves and our world.  Calling the first ten years of this century a time of staggering underachievement, Pink argues that the mainstream motivational system needs to be overhauled and upgraded.

This book, which is in three distinct parts, is an excellent summary of motivation best practice; and thanks to Pink’s writing skills and excellent examples it did not read like a textbook, but a compelling overview of how work could be.

Part 1 draws on decades of scientific research on human motivation and examines how the typical approach (and the way in which our organisations are principally configured) is increasingly incompatible with contemporary business and life.  The traditional perspective on motivation is based on Taylor’s scientific management theories, which contended that the way to improve performance, increase productivity and encourage excellence is to reward the good and punish the bad. These theories worked very well to drive economic progress and the technological developments of the last century when work was frequently routine and easily categorised. As workplaces became more sophisticated and jobs more complex the Taylorist premise that workers wouldn’t perform without being prodded by positive and negative stimuli was challenged. The research of Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor created awareness that actually people are also swayed by intrinsic motivators, including wanting to be engaged in their work and taking responsibility for it.

So far, so familiar! But Part 2 where Pink reflects on modern behavioural science and motivational theories is where, for me, the book got really interesting. The new thinking that has emerged has changed and shaped our view of intelligence, creativity and human potential. He concludes that the three elements that make up drive or motivation nowadays are (i)  Autonomy - our desire to be self-directed; (ii) Mastery - our urge to continually refine and improve on what we do; and (iii) Purpose - our yearning to be part of something bigger than ourselves. To illustrate what he means he refers to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.

Pink demonstrates that how we organise, think about and undertake our work has changed completely. His examples put paid to the old notion that people don't like work and would rather be someplace else. He points to open source (e.g. Wikipedia or Linux where the content has been created by volunteers) as one of the most powerful business models of the twenty-first century. These non-paid volunteers’ intrinsic motivation is their engagement in the content of the work, and a desire to make this information accessible to the community. He also notes that work has become less routine and more creative, quoting Professor Theresa Amabile of Harvard (leading researcher in creativity and one of the band of modern behavioural thinkers frequently referred to in the book): ‘intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to motivation.’

Pink gives examples of real autonomy in organizations when he refers to a number of companies that have configured themselves as a ROWE (results-oriented work environment). Employees set their own hours; they come to work to achieve results and not just put in the 8.5 hours.  Pink believes our innate desire for mastery (in our professional and personal lives) helps prevent burn-out because it feeds off our need to learn and develop our skills. In terms of the need for purpose or to be part of something bigger than ourselves he refers to organisations that are springing up, where their objective, in addition to making profits is to maximise benefits for society. One of the examples he gives is TOMS shoes. 

Part 3 is a toolkit of resources designed to help you and your organisation create settings for autonomy, mastery and purpose to flourish.

This book is compelling. Pink does a masterful job of showing the limits of widely accepted assumptions about motivation and the potential of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. All of the examples used are a real paradigm shift, away from the command-and-control culture and towards giving employees meaningful choices. The toolkit offers good evidence-based advice.  I’d recommend this book for managers, educators and anyone who wants to understand better how to motivate others (and themselves) to be as effective as possible.

For further articles on creativity, innovation and fresh ideas by Isobel Tynan,  please see www.lifetravelling.com.
Isobel is also a regular contributor to Corporatetraining.ie, click here to view her articles.