Recommended Reading: Drive by Daniel Pink
Mar 24, 2010
I've been listening to Dan Pink's book about motivation for the past several days during my commute. And I'll just go ahead and admit that at times I was enthused but mostly, sadly, discouraged. But it's not that anything he's written is in itself discourage, quite the contrary.
It's the realization that most of the corporate world is weighed down with an inefficient, 19th century management style that is focused on external motivations that inadvertently destroy personal, internal motivation, to the detriment of the company as a whole. And this bothers me - because I believe in what I do but am limited in how I do it by the increasingly micro-managed requirements on my time and performance.
And like most humans, I want to be free to determine how I live this life and do this work. I WANT to do the work, but what I really want is for corporate leadership to give me the freedom to do it in a way that works best for me, rather than to be driven by daily statistics, "performance" goals that are limited to how much I do rather than what or how I do what I do. The stick doesn't make me want to work hard, folks; it makes me angry and rebellious, and it destroys the spark that makes this work a joy.
Additional resources:
Dan Pink on Motivation, Ted talk
