B O O K R E V I E W

Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink

SYNOPSISIn Daniel Pink’s best-selling book, Drive, the author asks readers to forget almost everything we know about how to motivate people. According to Pink, the old model, based on external, “carrot-and-stick” motivators doesn’t work—and often does harm. Instead, the book argues, we need a new “operating system” based on tapping people’s internal motivators to help them find intrinsic meaning in their work. The book, which draws upon decades of behavioral science to make its case, outlines three essential elements for this new approach:

• Autonomy: The desire to direct our own lives (i.e., what we do and when, how and with whom we do it)

• Mastery: The urge to make progress and get better at something that matters

• Purpose: The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

Drive tackles these elements in great detail, providing scientific evidence for their value and offering specific examples of how organizations are promoting these values in innovative ways. For example, to foster autonomy, Google allows its engineers to spend 20 percent of their time at work on any projects they choose, a policy that has resulted in a number of successful products, such as Google News. The book concludes with a lengthy toolkit for putting the ideas in Drive into practice. It provides tips and suggested reading on how to use the power of intrinsic motivators to manage an organization, navigate one’s career, educate kids, and even develop a personal fitness routine. Full of big ideas and real-world examples, Drive makes a convincing case that organizations can’t afford to ignore the value of intrinsic motivation. RESEARCH FOUNDATION The central idea of the book is that there is a mismatch, as the author describes it, “between what science knows and what business does.” Drive aims to repair this mismatch and bring our understanding of motivation into the twenty-first century. Throughout the book, Pink draws heavily on the work of esteemed scientists who have studied human behavior and motivation for the past 50 years. Many of the concepts in Drive aren’t new, but are rather a repackaging and meta-analysis of our contemporary understanding of motivation, accompanied by vivid examples from the business world. Review by Keith Cucuzza, Bridge Consulting

SAMPLE LEARNINGS Much of Drive is focused broadly on shifting our mindset regarding how motivation works. After cementing the need for change and highlighting some ways that organizations are addressing this need, the book also provides some guidance on how individuals can build their intrinsic motivation. For example, Pink offers “Five Steps to Closer to Mastery,” based on the work of psychology professor Anders Ericsson:

• Remember that the objective is to improve performance. Simply working on something with a consistent time commitment won’t do; you must set new goals and strain to reach a bit higher each time.

• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition matters. Basketball greats don’t shoot ten free throws at the end of team practice; they shoot five hundred.

• Seek constant, critical feedback. If you don’t know how you’re doing, you won’t know what to improve.

• Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. While many of us work on what we’re already good at, those who get better work on their weaknesses.

• Prepare for the process to be mentally and physically exhausting. That’s why so few people commit to it, but that’s why it works.