Results Revolution: Daniel Pink on Human Motivation

Have you read Daniel Pink's books? Listened to his Ted Talks and Oprah Interviews? His book A Whole New Mind was one of my top business reads last year. Oh you remember when he was writing Al Gore's speeches? Well, the world is better off now that he is helping us leaders understand things we think we already know.

In this 18 minute Ted talk, Pink reveals the findings of the science of motivation and completely debunks the theory that extrinsic motivators are effective human motivators. It's not about a bigger carrot, he argues, human performance; motivation is driven by intrinsic motivators such as; autonomy, purpose and mastery.

Pink makes a case that leaders and American business desperately needs to hear. We need a  bailout alright; a bailout of our infective leadership paradigms.

As I listened to Pink I mused over what it would take to stage a 

 RESULTS REVOLUTION.

No what we really need is a  LEADERSHIP RESULTS REVOLUTION

 Forget economic stimulus packages. If it's true that all net job creation between 1980 and 2005 came from companies that were less than 5 years old. Perhaps it's time to harness what entrepreneurs, start-ups, non, profits, activists and community leaders have known since the beginning of time; people do amazing things when they get to choose what they do, it's something they want to get better at, they have a say in how they do it and it aligns with their passion and provides a sense of meaning and purpose.

 Don't miss Pink's TED talk, in it he identifies a RESULTS REVOLUTIONIZED company you may have heard of, Google,  where each employee gets to choose what to do (autonomy, mastery and purpose) with 20% of their time….funny, it appears that this 20-percent time is  driving over 80% of Google's innovation. (That my friend is BIG PERFORMANCE, RESULT)

Pink also highlights the success of ROWE; results, only work environments. A re-invention process for companies that drives performance by focusing on results not schedules and meetings. Pink also compares the highly incentivized, superior business process Microsoft funded Encarta to the passionate unpaid collaboration; Wikepedia as another example of WHAT can happen when people are motivated…. 

What if all we really need is get back to basics?

 What if business doesn't need a bailout or any other extrinsic solution?

 What if what we really need right now is an inside leadership job?

What if it's time to put our 21'st century leadership glasses on and call bullshit to a lot of what business and companies are doing in the name of efficiency, motivation and work?

Okay I'm so wound up about this I am going to identify 12 Leadership questions to start a RESULTS REVOLUTION.

I'll be posting these 12 questions over my next 4 posts. 

YES, questions, I don't have the answers; you do. But one thing I do know is that Pink's on to something, it's the reason I've spent the last couple decades pursuing untraditional paths of being and working.

My entire life has been an attempt at creating an authentic, autonomous (interdependent),  purposeful life of mastery that leverages my talents and passions in such a way to add value to others.

What if every leader in the world committed to a RESULTS REVOLUTION; and in so doing promised to lead and create environments that liberated human potential through humanizing work;  providing autonomy, mastery and purposeful opportunities?

What if? 

What if all we need is for us leaders to throw away the false beliefs that carrots, corporate retreats, visions, brands, meetings, rules, procedure manuals are replacements for purpose, interdependence, autonomy and personal mastery?

So talk to me about what motivates you? 

Carrots, jail? Autonomy? Mastery? Purpose?

Pam Hoelzle