Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas

Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice,

THIS IS A BOOK about motivation

Carol Dweck says, “Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working toward them.”15

were trying to survive.

seek reward and avoid punishment more broadly. And it was from this insight that a new operating system—call it Motivation 2.0—arose.

When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and what business does. Our current business operating system—which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators—doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: (1) Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives; (2) Mastery—the urge to get better and better at something that matters; and (3) Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose.

Getting the internal and external equity right isn’t itself a motivator. But it is a way to avoid putting the issue of money back on the table and making it a de-motivator.

Everybody wants to be paid well. I sure do. I bet you’re the same. The Type I approach to motivation doesn’t require bargain basement wages or an all-volunteer workforce, but it does demand a new approach to pay.

Think of this new approach as the Zen of compensation: In Motivation 3.0, the best use of money is to take the issue of money off the table.

The more prominent salary, perks, and benefits are in someone’s work life, the more they can inhibit creativity and unravel performance. As Edward Deci explained in Chapter 3, when organizations use rewards like money to motivate staff, “that’s when they’re most demotivating.” The better strategy is to get compensation right—and then get it out of sight. Effective organizations compensate people in amounts and in ways that allow individuals to mostly forget about compensation and instead focus on the work itself.