Yes, we can be motivated

Dan Pinks new book Drive ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’ has been published. If you don´t know his writings I urge you to place your order after you have read this.

Here are his own take on what motivates in a short burst:

There’s a myth in business that the only way to get people to perform at a high level is with carrots and sticks. But that’s just wrong – not wrong morally, but wrong scientifically. Forty years of science tells us that those sorts of motivators – If you do this, then you’ll get that – do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. And for creative conceptual work, those if-then motivators usually make things worse.

The better approach – more enduring and more effective – is motivation built around three ingredients: Autonomy (the desire to direct our own lives), Mastery (the urge to get better at things that matter), and Purpose (the desire to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.)

It´s quite easy to agree with Mr.Pink. The social web will enhance these elements in our lives beyond business. The boundaries between our private social sphere and business sphere has been removed. We live for love and passion, not just doing.

So ask yourself:

What´s your passion? What´s my colleagues passions? Can our products and services generate passion among our customers? Or is it something we can do beyond that (products and regular service) to spark that passion? And as a result, get some luve back.

Now, go an order a copy of Drive.

Still here? Check out this superb presentation on the subject.