Using money to motivate

Dan Pink has a unique presentation where someone (I’ve been told it isn’t him) draws on a white board, illustrating what he is saying. He has a fascinating one on “What motivates us” which is found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded

It’s definitely worth a watch.

Based on his book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Pink tells us that study after study debunk the common perception in individuals and in much of the business world that money rewards are effective motivators. According to these studies, after a certain point money rewards only work for repetitive physical labor. For complicated work that requires creativity and thought, higher money rewards actually result in worse performance. The best thing to do about money, he says, is to pay people enough so it is not an issue for them.

For me the highlight occurs in the last couple of minutes of the video where he says there are three things, he refers to them as factors, that motivate us:

1. Autonomy – The urge to direct our own lives.
2. Mastery – The desire to get better and better at something that matters.
3. Purpose – The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

What fascinates me about this is that this means the greatest motivation comes from within. Ultimately the motivation – the decision to move- comes from the mover, not from an outside agency.

This does not mean one person can’t set up a motivational environment, by focusing on these factors, in which other persons will be more likely to motivate themselves. Teachers, for example, can do it by setting up their class rooms and their teaching so that the students exercise control over their learning. When my son was little, he went to a Montessori school. The class room was set up so the children could serially visit one of many “stations” and do “work” that helped the student develop a particular skill. The student chooses which station to work at, and how long to stay at the station before moving to another station.

Employers can do it by seeking input from their workers as to best practices, the basis of many of the more “enlightened” forms of management, such as those espoused by followers of W. Edwards Deming, the economist who helped Japan become a economic power after World War II.

That we have the power to motivate ourselves, is, by itself, motivating, because it empowers us, and allows us to direct our own lives. But don’t wait for others to set up environments so that we can motivate ourselves. Set up those environments yourself. Control your own motivation.