Drive - Likewise Book Reviews

"This easy read by Daniel Pink is world famous for what’s in the last section of the book - hands on activities to implement lessons from the book in your daily life. Daniel focused on intrinsic motivation as primary driver for fulfilling lives. "

"Humans are complex, what’s motivates and inspires us in the workplace is more complex than just the income we’re rewarded at the end of the pay period. Great business minded read "

"This was a great book on approaches to motivation and understanding what really motivates individuals. There was a ton of research put into this, and it was an interesting read on thinking about the people you are trying to motivate."

"Other books you might like: "The Rebel Sell", "No Logo", "The Price of Everything""

"This book is about modern methods of motivation. It shows how the historic motivation of biological need and the later motivation of extrinsic reward and punishment are incapable of motivating modern low-supervision creative workers. Because extrinsic motivators quash intrinsic motivation and encourage shortcuts, a new approach to motivation is needed.<br/><br/>Pink suggests that people are inherently intrinsically-motivated but that the established work and education environment compels them to become extrinsically-motivated instead, which harms their capacity to do work requiring thought. To promote intrinsically-motivated knowledge workers, he suggests giving them autonomy and allowing them to achieve mastery and a sense of purpose.<br/><br/>The entire last third of the book was a hodgepodge of various lists including<br/> * lists of management thinkers <br/> * recommended additional readings <br/> * book discussion questions <br/> * suggestions on how to incorporate intrinisic motivation in various settings (which was a bit too self-helpy at points but nevertheless inspiring and full of useful suggestions for educators, parents, and employees to encourage a more intrinsically motivated environment around themselves).<br/><br/>Some more specific things this book says are:<br/><spoiler><br/> * "Vocation Vacations" are a setup where people pay to try out another type of job, implying that a job can be a reward in itself (29-30).<br/> * Punishing undesirable behavior with a fine can result in an increase in the behavior by changing it from a moral interaction to a monetary transaction (50-1).<br/> * Using a results-only work environment (ROWE) where workers can work when and where they want to as long as they get their work done is a great way to motivate and retain employees in creative jobs (84-6, 98-9).<br/> * Several large companies have been successful at "homeshoring" their customer service department, letting those workers answer calls from within the comfort of their own home (102).<br/> * People who were prevented from reaching a flow state for just two days displayed signs of "generalized anxiety disorder" suggesting that flow states are necessary for normal mental health (125-8).<br/> * Achieving profit goals leads to an increase in anxiety whereas achieving purpose goals leads to an increase in happiness (141-2).<br/> * At Red Gate Software, individual salespeople each assumed that others would not work without commission, but said they liked the idea themselves (182-3).<br/></spoiler>"