What Really Motivates People - Part 2

January 20, 2010

Interview with Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

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Mike Carruthers:
Pay for performance. That’s the model many organizations use to motivate their people; if you perform we’ll pay you money.

Daniel Pink:
And what the science shows that you've got to pay people enough, but once you pay people enough, external rewards like that (If/then rewards) don’t play that big of a role in high performance.

Daniel Pink, author of the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us …

What really plays a role in high performance, once you pay people enough, is giving them freedom, allowing them to get better at something that matters, and infusing the workplace with a sense of purpose a sense that they’re doing something larger than themselves.

As an example, says Dan, take telephone call center workers. It’s a tough and sometimes boring job, people are monitored very closely and they typically have to stick to a script.

Well you have a company like Zappos that deals with its call center in a fundamentally different way. They say to their employees, “Solve the customers problem, do it how ever you want for as long as you want, we’re not going to monitor you we’re not going to time you – solve the customers problem.” And what - low and behold Zappos comes out of nowhere to be one of the top rated customer service firms in America.

This type of motivation really works.

It’s not “kum-by- ya touchy/feely” management that says we’re going to sacrifice the bottom line it’s actually a remarkably hard headed, sophisticated, savvy, and strategic approach to business.
 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here