Psychology

Gladwell and Pink on Motivation

Malcolm Gladwell provides a great little write-up of Dan Pink’s recent book “Drive: The Surprising […]

David Zahl / 3.2.10

Malcolm Gladwell provides a great little write-up of Dan Pink’s recent book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” over at the New Yorker:

“[Pink’s] jumping-off point is the academic work done over the past few decades that consistently shows that financial rewards hinder creativity. These studies have been around for a while. But Pink follows though on their implications in a way that is provocative and fascinating. The way we structure organizations and innovation, after all, almost always assumes that the prospect of financial reward is the prime human motivator. We think that the more we pay people, the better results we’ll get. But what if that isn’t true? What the research shows, instead, is that the great wellspring of creativity is intrinsic motivation—that is, I do my best work for personal rewards (out of love or intellectual fulfillment) and not external motivation (money).”