My current Head of School refers to this book nearly every staff building opportunity. After reading it I see it is the foundation of the way he mentors and instructs. The methods described in this book apply to teachers, parents, leaders and colleagues in order to help each other grow. The book is a great summary of psychological experiments and research studies in the business world and educational industry. Drive is all about identifying what makes us do the things we do. It points out that society and civilization have changed over time. There have been three versions of motivation across the existence of mankind. We used to be motivated to do things for survival (1.0). Then we were motivated by incentives like getting paid (2.0). Now we know the best way to motivate someone is to get them to intrinsically value what they are doing (3.0). We have a natural curiosity and innate desire to learn, but external factors and incentives take it away through life. I don’t want the next few paragraphs to be a summary of chapters. I'd like to revisit some stand out parts of the book and mention why they are relevant. Some key terms and concepts that emerged were: Mechanical skill versus cognitive skill- I always battled the idea of money equals happiness with my friends. This is branch of that conversation. Money only goes far to get us to do something. If something is simple and straightforward, it is a mechanical skill. Carrots and sticks work well in this case. If you raise the pay, you'll raise the performance. I think back to the “I Love Lucy” conveyor belt scene. But as soon as something requires some cognitive functions, the larger the reward leads to poorer performance. When a task requires creative thinking financial rewards don’t work. Pink goes on to explain that this is the basis for many of the best inventions and ideas of the 21st century. People develop creative ideas because they want to, not because they are paid. Paying people sucks the joy out of it. We should pay people enough to take the money out of the equation. This way they can have and live a good life, but give them the opportunity to excel elsewhere. If we are going to give rewards for some specific behavior, don't let them be “if then” rewards. Make them “now, that” rewards so they are a type of surprise for the people that contributed. These are non-contingent rewards given after a task is completed. It's like a “thank you for your effort in completing this task, I'd like to treat the team to dinner” reward. Effective organizations compensate people by forgetting them to think about compensation. They keep all other factors as even as possible. Fairness and trust stand out as points that were brought up. When I think of not getting paid for something, I think back to the time I worked on the TEDxISHCMC-AmericanAcademy. I was motivated to make that happen by nothing other than the benefit it brought to the school culture. Type I or X People-. Intrinsic rewards people, or “type-I” people, live different lifestyles and are motivated by different things than external rewards people (type-X). Pink makes it clear this is not an introvert vs. extrovert dilemma. Reward focused people like brokers, real estate dealers, hedge fund managers and profit earning company owners are type-X. Athletes start off as intrinsic, but the compensation they receive may end up turning them into type-x people (this is my belief). Type- I people are more motivated by their beliefs and the joy they get from their work. Pink lists many examples in his book. Type-I really resonated with me. Type-I behavior seems like a better lifestyle. According to Pink type-I people perform tasks that are bigger and better than themselves. I am sometimes motivated by money, but it has to be a significant amount. I’m at a stage in my life where my free time is more valuable than the compensation I’ll receive for a task. I try to do things that bring me joy when I have free time. The difference between type-I and type-x does not indicate one to be more successful than they other. They just do things for different purposes. I would like to be more of a type-I if I could. Flow- Pink refers to the book by Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of mind where we are laser focused, but calm, and whatever we are doing we are doing well. It's almost our super human power to complete and solve difficult work, while enjoying it. I am probably paraphrasing incorrectly here, but he talks about how humans seek purpose. They find that purpose when they enter a state of flow. Its ideal if we can find flow at our jobs because we can get paid to do what we love. Other people enter flow when painting, coding, building, etc... I enter flow when I garden, and build something with my hands. Pink proposed asking yourself a few questions to help find direction in life. What is your Purpose? What is your one sentence about your life? How do you want to be remembered? And, was i better today than yesterday? These questions can promote intrinsic motivation. Motivation 3.0 produces engagement and mastery. Mastery begins with flow. Our workplaces have it all wrong. It's not about empowerment, suggest Pink. It's about developing the right mindset among ourselves and employees.. We need to have the mindset to see our see abilities as infinitely improvable. I believe the educational buzz-word these days is “growth mindset.” Give your employees tasks that are not too easy and not too hard. These are called the Goldilocks tasks. Give them tasks that are “just right” to promote growth. Autonomy- We want engaging self directed performance. One day of autonomy produces things that would have never emerged. Give people 20 % of their work time to do as they please and you won't believe what they come up with. I will apply this to my classroom this year. One day bursts of autonomy. Students can tackle any problem they want and deliver it by the end of class. I'd like to give them the chance to do Community service devised by themselves. Mastery - People will sometimes volunteer their free time to be part of something. Why do they do this? Its goes against all that we do all day. Why run a rock band at night for $100, but complain about your $80,000 position all day? Pink suggests the reason is because if they are passionate about it, they will strive towards mastery. Though it may never reachable, we should all strive towards a level of mastery of what we do and love. It can be painful but if you love it, it is fun. Getting better at something is satisfying and rewarding. Effort, grit and practice are good for us. Purpose. Humans seek purpose. Pink details the purpose motive as something that makes coming to work easier. Alternatively , the profit motive currently outweighs purpose motive in our organizations. More and more organization wants to enact a purpose motive. Profit motive leads to bad services and crappy products. Other topics worth mentioning ROW no schedules. Results Only Workplace. The 4 rs- Reading writing arithmetic and relevance. Montessori intense focus concentration in the classroom
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