Drive
Daniel H. Pink
Drive
Daniel H. Pink
Why rewards and punishments often backfire, and how autonomy, mastery and purpose do the job better
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- 11 key ideas
- Text
- Published 2009
Introduction
Daniel Pink argues that the way most workplaces and schools try to motivate people, with rewards and punishments, was built for routine work and often backfires in the creative, thinking work that matters most today. Drawing on decades of research by psychologists such as Harry Harlow, Edward Deci, Richard Ryan, Teresa Amabile and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, he says people have a third drive: the wish to do something because it is interesting and meaningful.
The book has three parts. Part One explains why rewards and punishments so often backfire, and where they still work. Part Two takes up the three elements of motivation that Pink draws from the research: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Part Three is a toolkit of practical ideas for individuals, organizations, pay, and parents and teachers. This summary follows the 2009 text.
Note: some of the classic findings in this book have been debated since it appeared. The effect of rewards on interest in a task is one example. Deci and his colleagues' 1999 review of 128 experiments found a clearly negative effect of tangible rewards, while an earlier 1994 review by Cameron and Pierce found no overall harm, only a small negative effect when expected tangible rewards were given simply for doing a task, and results continue to vary by task and kind of reward. A 2014 meta-analysis by Macnamara and colleagues also found that deliberate practice explains a smaller share of differences in performance than earlier accounts suggested. This summary presents the research as Pink reports it.
- 1Pink argues that motivating people with rewards and punishments is an out-of-date operating system that no longer fits how we organize, think about and do our work
- 2Pink reports that experiments from Harry Harlow to Edward Deci show a third drive, the pleasure of the task itself, and that a promised reward can weaken it
- 3Pink argues that for work that needs thinking, bigger rewards can lower performance and creativity because they narrow our focus
- 4Pink reports that rewards and punishments can also crowd out good behavior and invite shortcuts, addiction and short-term thinking
- 5Pink says rewards still work for routine tasks and when used with care: fair baseline pay, a reason and freedom for dull tasks, and unexpected “now that” rewards for creative work
- 6Pink proposes a shift from behavior driven by outside rewards to behavior driven from inside, which he calls Type X and Type I, building on self-determination theory
- 7Pink argues that people are meant to direct themselves, and that autonomy over task, time, technique and team improves both satisfaction and performance
- 8Pink says mastery, the wish to get better at something that matters, begins with flow, a state in which a challenge fits our ability just right
- 9Pink says mastery follows three laws: it is a mindset, it is a pain, and it is an asymptote
- 10Pink argues that people also seek purpose, a cause larger than themselves, and that goals chosen for purpose bring more lasting satisfaction than goals chosen for profit
- 11Pink's toolkit turns the three elements into practices for individuals, organizations, pay, and parents and teachers
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