The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink | TED - YouTube

In a candid confession, the speaker humorously admits to a regrettable decision made over 20 years ago: attending law school. Despite never practicing law, he uses this experience to set the stage for a compelling argument about rethinking business management.

He introduces the 'candle problem,' a classic experiment by Karl Duncker, which demonstrates functional fixedness. The solution requires thinking outside the box—literally. Princeton University's Sam Glucksberg used this problem to show that incentives can impede problem-solving. When monetary rewards were offered, performance worsened, contradicting the traditional belief that incentives enhance performance.

This counterintuitive outcome has been replicated for nearly 40 years, revealing that while rewards can yield results for tasks with a clear set of rules, they often backfire for tasks requiring cognitive skills. The speaker emphasizes that this is one of the most robust findings in social science yet one of the most ignored.

The mismatch between what science knows and what business does is alarming. The current business model, built around extrinsic motivators like rewards and punishments, is outdated. For 21st-century tasks that require creativity and conceptual thinking, an intrinsic approach is more effective.

Dan Ariely's research further supports this, showing that higher incentives can lead to poorer performance in tasks that require even basic cognitive skills. The London School of Economics found that financial incentives could negatively impact overall performance.

The speaker advocates for a new business operating system based on intrinsic motivation—doing things because they matter, are interesting, or part of something important. He highlights autonomy, mastery, and purpose as the building blocks of this new approach.

Examples of companies like Atlassian and Google show the success of granting employees significant autonomy. The Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) goes even further, leading to increased productivity and satisfaction.

The speaker concludes by contrasting Microsoft's Encarta with Wikipedia, the latter triumphing despite its reliance on voluntary, unpaid contributions. This victory of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic rewards is presented as evidence that a new approach to motivation is not only possible but also more effective.

The mismatch between what science knows and what business does can be repaired by embracing intrinsic motivators. This could revolutionize businesses and potentially change the world. The case rests on the powerful notion that what truly drives us is the intrinsic desire to do things because they matter.

The original article: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y&list=PLV7xfBoJKBNQ3yhYgQRqocSWs1MKF7j0n&index=17