Drive by Daniel Pink

This book relies on social experiments to understand how motivation works.

Mastery - Autonomy - Purpose

3 keys to motivation:

• Mastery
• Autonomy
• Purpose

Flaws of carrot and stick

Most preconceived motivation factors such as "Carrot & stick" no longer work when we are past the survival threshold.

If-then rewards have a negative effect. They narrow our focus (ex: candle problem). Ex: Paying blood donors decreased their numbers in half.

They encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour and short-term thinking.

Instead, give rewards or praises / positive feedbacks after the task is complete.

Experiments & Examples

Candle experiment

The experiment gives participants a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches, and asks them to attach the candle to the wall so that it doesn't drip onto the table below. Participants that were "incentivised" by money rewards were 3min30 slower.

Creativity is killed by Carrot & stick (extrinsic motivators). It does work for more simple & mechanical tasks.

Microsoft Encarta vs Wikipedia

Encarta was build by well paid contributers and managers, but was overtaken by Wikipedia.

Blood donor experiment

When paid to give blood, donations drop from 53% to 30% of tested subjects.