Comments on: Motivation – How Business Has it Wrong and How You Can Put it Right

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:12:53 +0000

I saw Dan Pink talk at the RSA earlier this, though I haven’t read his book on motivation yet. He is a great speaker (though he seems to have said everything in his TEDTalk – he didn’t add anything new in person!), but I also think he is oversimplifying a fair bit.

I think he is absolutely right that if you want the best people, you should pay them sufficiently to make money cease to be the issue. But then, all other things being equal, another organisation could come along and poach your workers (staff, colleagues, coworkers, whoever) for marginally more money. So it doesn’t really change much: in a competitive environment where there is a free flow of people as well as capital, if I can get more money for the same effort, I am likely to do so. And I am not really motivated by money!

There has been a lot over the last couple of years about bankers’ bonuses. I believe that whilst bonuses may not motivate success in a significant fashion, they also act as signals: if you want people who are going to function effectively in what is cut-throat competitive environment, find those who ARE motivated by big bonuses – and hire them. That’s the way the economic model works.

(And hopefully they’ll start adding some ethical tests into the mix as well…)

I do think Pink’s ideas – which are not new, really – could have a big impact on future organisations and their structures – particularly if the fable move towards flat structures with portfolio workers actually happens. If one has a variety of different jobs with different organisations on the go and they all pay roughly the same, how is one organisation going to stand out from the rest? Providing interest through autonomy, mastery and purpose (surely part of Maslow’s higher level needs?) sounds like a good way to do it!

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:41:13 +0000

Thank you, James! It is quite stunning that businesses carry on as they are, given what we know (and have known for a long time).

Eaon – I’m heading over to Amazon right now to check that one out. Sounds good.

By: eaon

eaon — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:13:21 +0000

Good work.
There’s another great book (it was the one that properly turned me on to this idea of ‘Purpose’ as a key motivator) from a few years back, Meaning Inc by Gurnek Bains.
Worth a peek if you’ve not seen it.

By: James

James — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:10:34 +0000

Great post Benjamin. So much of business puts barriers in the way of, and adds costs to, what it really needs it’s people to do. Frustrating but fixable.

I especially like your point about describing the problem, not the solution. This harks back to so many other successful approaches like Covey’s “Begin with the end in mind” and GTD’s Natural Planning Model. Not a new idea but a very important one and tools which facilitate this, like Milestone Planner, will make it more prevalent.