What Drives You?
I recently picked up the book Drive by Daniel Pink, a social psychologist. (I’m not sure why I thought I’d have time to read during the summer with three small kiddos at home, but I had to take the car to get a screw taken out of the tire so I actually got some reading time in.) I picked this book partly because I like this kind of research and how it relates to the brain, but a few days later, I got an email from my new boss asking me to figure out how to motivate our teachers to submit their paperwork on time documenting the work they have done introducing their colleagues to new types of technology. Full disclosure: I haven’t finished the book. The main thrust of the book though is that the old carrot-and-stick method of motivation is more forcing people to do things and intrinsic motivation is the only thing that truly helps people accomplish creative things of value. However, as we know, there are definitely things that have to be done, want to or not. To ...