Drive (book)

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🔼Topic:: Motivation (MOC)

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

1. External motivation is harmful - more often than not, external motivation hurts creativity, our focus, and encourages unethical behavior, and more harmful is that it crowds out intrinsic motivation, without incentives we lack the will to do it anymore
2. Autonomy mastery and purpose - To support intrinsic motivation, people need a sense of autonomy, i.e freedom of choice over their strategy and decisions, a challenging goal that will bring flow, and a sense of purpose to drive them to action.

🗒️Relate

⛓ Life lessons, action items

🔍Critique

✅ by following this method, what will happen? the book is short, to the point, the structure is clear and I really liked that all the tips were concentrated at the end, along with summaries of different length (a sentence, a page, and by chapter). This can be really be helpful as a manual Post reading. Also, no promises on changing the world or groundbreaking truth, simply an acknowledgement of what's best to do now days

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong... The content of this book is a three in terms of novelty, but in any other case it's at least of four. The idea is very basic and simple to understand.

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are... the focus on this book is changing business norms, so its less relevant to individuals, although it tries to be.

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style...

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

Intro

We each have 3 types of motivation:

1. biological (Motivation 1.0)
2. external (Motivation 2.0 - rewards and punishments)
3. internal (Motivation 3.0 - passion, interest...)

External Motivation causes us to be fixed on these external rewards Incentives, so that when they are gone we no longer have the motivation (its Crowding Out other types of motivation).

intro

• “One who is interested in developing and enhancing intrinsic motivation in children, employees, students, etc., should not concentrate on external-control systems such as monetary rewards,”

Part 1 - why External Motivation is Bad

our biological motivation (system 1.0) was the primary motivation while we were hunter-gatherers, not a lot more than simply animals. however, the introduction of the Industrial Revolution has brought forth the motivation 2.0 system, which is external rewards and punishments. Topics like productivity, and efficiency were introduced, and our actions have become measured, in a way that efficiency was rewarded, and bad behavior was punished Quantifiable self.

however, nowadays we need a new kind of motivation. Because external motivation hurts us in the way we organize, think, and do what we do. It seems that Intrinsic Motivation is the most valuable resource to businesses nowadays. Workers who achieve Flow perform better than workers who are rewarded for their achievements.

The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0

external motivation is problematic because:

1. it assumes we are rational agents, but as we see in recent developments in behavioral economics, we are very irrational in some cases Econs.
2. its useful when the job/behavior's rules are simple, but when you introduce Complexity, such in our high-skilled work nowadays, its a more challenging and problematic system to implement.
3. We have greater needs than monetary goals, as seen in Maslows pyramid. so external motivation can only get you so far

The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0

• The Motivation 2.0 operating system has endured for a very long time. Indeed, it is so deeply embedded in our lives that most of us scarcely recognize that it exists. For as long as any of us can remember, we’ve configured our organizations and constructed our lives around its bedrock assumption: The way to improve performance, increase productivity, and encourage excellence is to reward the good and punish the bad.
• Our current operating system has become far less compatible with, and at times downright antagonistic to: how we organize what we do; how we think about what we do; and how we do what we do.
• Motivation 2.0 assumes we’re the same robotic wealth-maximizers
• “Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.”
• Routine, not-so-interesting jobs require direction; nonroutine, more interesting work depends on self-direction.

Seven Reasons Carrot and Sticks Often Don't Work

1. it makes us focus on the reward instead of the work we do Goodhart’s Law, reducing productivity
2. It crowds out internal motivation. so perhaps we will be more motivated in the short term, but lose interest in the long term. It makes us believe that what we do is "work", and cannot be "fun" or "interesting" (why do it for myself when I can do it for money)
3. It damages creativity, since usually the external rewards are time based, and in situations of pressure of deadline, we tend to take fewer risks or experiment, so we go for more basic and straightforward solutions. Experimentation
4. it encourages cheating and unethical behavior (either by "the end justifies the means"), or by "economizing" social situations (if being late is punishable by a fine, that means that its an option, rather than a "vice"). Commodification
5. it makes us focus on the short term rather than the long term Present Bias

Seven Reasons Carrots and Sticks (Often) Don’t Work

• The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.
• Mechanisms designed to increase motivation can dampen it. Tactics aimed at boosting creativity can reduce it. Programs to promote good deeds can make them disappear. Meanwhile, instead of restraining negative behavior, rewards and punishments can often set it loose—and give rise to cheating, addiction, and dangerously myopic thinking.
• “People use rewards expecting to gain the benefit of increasing another person’s motivation and behavior, but in so doing, they often incur the unintentional and hidden cost of undermining that person’s intrinsic motivation toward the activity.”
• For artists, scientists, inventors, schoolchildren, and the rest of us, intrinsic motivation—the drive to do something because it is interesting, challenging, and absorbing—is essential for high levels of creativity.
• Adding a monetary incentive didn’t lead to more of the desired behavior. It led to less. The reason: It tainted an altruistic act and “crowded out” the intrinsic desire to do something good.
• Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining mastery are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others—sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores, and so on—can sometimes have dangerous side effects.
• The problem with making an extrinsic reward the only destination that matters is that some people will choose the quickest route there, even if it means taking the low road.
• 1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation. 2. They can diminish performance. 3. They can crush creativity. 4. They can crowd out good behavior. 5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior. 6. They can become addictive. 7. They can foster short-term thinking.

And the Special Circumstances when the Do

to give better external motivation:

1. As a bonus - give it undependably after the job has been completed (don't turn this into a habit since it will because a known external motivation)
2. Not money - give cash alternatives (throw a party, give praises and acknowledgments).
3. Simple tasks - save this for only routine tasks

and the Special Circumstances When They Do

• Any extrinsic reward should be unexpected and offered only after the task is complete.

Type I and Type X

Type I = Intrinsic motivation Type x = external motivation those with internal motivation are:

1. more productive in the long run
2. still care about money and benefits, its just not their main focus
3. their motivation is self-renewing

Type I and Type X

• Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.
• If we want to strengthen our organizations, get beyond our decade of underachievement, and address the inchoate sense that something’s gone wrong in our businesses, our lives, and our world, we need to move from Type X to Type I.
• Ultimately, Type I behavior depends on three nutrients: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Type I behavior is self-directed. It is devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters. And it connects that quest for excellence to a larger purpose.

Part 2 - how Can We Use Internal Motivation

Autonomy

to grow type i workers (internal motivation), they need Autonomy over:

1. tasks - like google that gives 20% "free time" to work on whatever you like. It shows that most creative projects or useful improvements come from that time.
2. Time - workers are more productive when they have control over their schedule. In terms of working hours, but also vacation days. What's important is getting things done, not how much time you work
3. Technique - your work is not scripted, have the freedom to find the best way to do it yourself
4. Team - be surrounded by similar mindset people

Autonomy

• our basic nature is to be curious and self-directed.
• A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude.
• Type I behavior emerges when people have autonomy over the four T’s: their task, their time, their technique, and their team.

Mastery

Mastery, and the sense of type I motivation requires engagement with the work, to do this we need three things:

1. Flow - the work should be a "goldilocks challenge" - just the right amount of challenge to skill.
2. Mindset - people with (Related: Growth Mindset) will tend to look at work differently, as an opportunity for learning and adapting, which will increase their engagement.
3. Grit - to achieve mastery one must be willing to do it even on the bad days. Especially considering that in order to be really good in something, it takes time, effort and consistency, all of those require grit. Grit

Mastery

• Where Motivation 2.0 sought compliance, Motivation 3.0 seeks engagement. Only engagement can produce mastery.

Purpose

what fuels type I workers is purpose, and not only monetary gains (although these are important as well). Modern business have to take that into account, their companies can no longer be just profit maximizers, they have to also come with a purpose, a way to demonstrate that they increase people's welfare or bring social change. This can also be done using words. Oaths have a strong effect on our sense of purpose, like the hypocritic oath of doctors. job crafting

Purpose

• The most deeply motivated people—not to mention those who are most productive and satisfied—hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves.
• profit motive, potent though it is, can be an insufficient impetus for both individuals and organizations. An equally powerful source of energy, one we’ve often neglected or dismissed as unrealistic, is what we might call the “purpose motive.”
• Humanize what people say and you may well humanize what they do.
• people might meet the minimal ethical standards to avoid punishment, but the guidelines have done nothing to inject purpose into the corporate bloodstream.

Part 3 - Tips and Resources to Flourish Internal Motivation

(This is rather a repetition or summary of previous sections)

The Type I Toolkit

• Type I for Individuals: Nine Strategies for Awakening Your Motivation
• As you contemplate your purpose, begin with the big question: What’s your sentence?
• At the end of each day, ask yourself whether you were better today than you were yesterday.
• One of the best ways to know whether you’ve mastered something is to try to teach it.

Personal Tips:

1. Try to learn or improve each day
2. what is "your sentence" (what will be written on your tombstone)
3. make flow checks during the day (see how you feel)

For Businesses:

Open your team for feedback, prompt autonomy and mastery. Less competition, more cooperation. Add the "20% private research time". Start small, and include your team in goal settings. Get money out of the equation - pay fairly and generously, and avoid commissions or other metrics that could be tricked. People First

For Education:

Give kids time to explore what they want. Have them present a personal project. Don't connect between allowance and doing chores. Praise efforts, not intelligence how to give praises. Help them see the purpose of what they're doing.