Motivation – you’re doing it wrong
Here’s (yet another) great TED presentation – this one is by Dan Pink and is about the mismatch between what science knows and what businesses do to motivate people.
Dan’s point is that rewarding performance mostly doesn’t work and often leads to worse performance.
For tasks that are simple and straight-forward and require no creativity or cognitive skills, extrinsic motivation works fine and promising people rewards for good performance increases performance.
But as soon as a task requires even rudimentary cognitive skills, performance decreases if you offer performance rewards. And the larger the reward, the worse the performance.
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Robyn Munro Said,
September 4, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Oh I love this presentation, so glad you included it Alex. We (Atlassian), were so chuffed to be included in Dan’s talk. He really is a very good speaker. If anyone has questions about Atlassian and how we do FedEx Day or any of our other initiatives then please let me know, I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Robyn Munro Said,
September 4, 2009 @ 8:46 am
Oh I love this presentation, so glad you included it Alex. We (Atlassian), were so chuffed to be included in Dan’s talk. He really is a very good speaker. If anyone has questions about Atlassian and how we do FedEx Day or any of our other initiatives then please let me know, I’d be happy to answer any questions.
Derek Irvine, Globoforce Said,
September 5, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
Excellent presentation and moved me to blog extensively about it myself (http://globoforce.blogspot.com/2009/09/science-proves-carrots-are-rotten-and.html). Dan speaks so elegantly to why we cannot incent someone to do the work — but we can help them find the meaning and purpose in the work such that they very much want to engage fully in it themselves.
Well done!
DrChaos Said,
September 8, 2009 @ 4:16 am
Good point to know about incentives. Inner ones are pretty much important.
Min Zhu Said,
September 12, 2009 @ 3:18 am
Alex, thanks for sharing. I think the speaker did make the point, how to motivate in different cituation. I love all your big or small sharing articles because these are real inspirite for the people who facing difficulties especially during the current recession. Keep it going, I’ll always stand beside you.
Mycetes Said,
September 13, 2009 @ 6:25 am
It certainly isn’t worthwhile working anymore. For the past 25 years I have seen what was a lucrative and rewarding career all but disappear. I am speaking of computing and informative technology.
25 years ago all IT staff could expect to amass huge amounts of overtime earnings. Employers no longer pay overtime under any circumstances anymore. They expect you to use your own time to catch up, or to travel to and from appointments. If I have to go or come from abroad, Saturday and Sunday are used for those purposes.
Company cars: gone
Perks: gone
Bonuses: all but gone. Not worth it anymore. Not worth the effort required to gain them.
Payrises: gone. I have not had a proper one for 8 years
Final salary pensions: gone. These have been replaced with deadbeat savings funds. Poverty stares us in the face in old age.
Promotions: gone. No one gets promoted anymore, not if you are technical.
Motivation: gone. We are demoralised and demotivated. Managed by morons.
Advice to the kids: don’t work for large multinational corporations anymore. They are nothing but slave drivers and will eventually sell your job and career overseas to the Far East and its cheap labour.
» Incentives and motivation patriciasharpley.com Said,
September 16, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
[...] morning, I read this article from Chief Happiness Officer, Alexander Kjerulf, and watched the attached Dan Pink presentation [...]
Jan Said,
October 3, 2009 @ 5:26 pm
Thank you for sharing this. I am just starting my career and this one is very helpful.
When even Forbes Magazine get it… Said,
April 9, 2010 @ 10:44 am
[...] Motivation – you’re doing it wrong. [...]
Well make up your damn mind – do rewards motivate or don’t they? Said,
April 15, 2010 @ 9:12 am
[...] Then science starts interfering and pointing out that, actually, rewards only motivate in a very narrow set of circumstances and that there is a huge gap between what science knows and what business does. That’s what Dan Pink talks about in his excellent TED presentation. [...]