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 that end, there is a sub-chapter that discusses how to motivate people in circumstances where there is no way to incorporate choice or creativity (such as filling out paperwork) which is what helps me in the specific question my boss addressed. Based on what I’ve read, my main strategy will be to find ways to make it fun, give random rewards to those who have it done consistently, and give them time in our meetings to get it done. (I keep trying to find ways to bring Plinko into this, because everyone loves Plinko. :-))

However, as I began thinking about motivation, I had to rethink all the ways I convince people (especially my little people at home) to do things. And too often, it’s with the threat of something bad (bad grades, timeout, detention, future career implications, etc.) So my goal for this year is to not threaten so much, but to find ways to bring out intrinsic motivation in folks, giving more opportunities for creative choice in circumstances, and less prescribed requirements.

Here are some ways I’ve done this in the past:

• Offer choice as much as possible (choose topics, or “you need to demonstrate this outcome, you can use any technology tool you want to accomplish it”)
• Provide tasks which don’t have a required outcome, but raw materials foster creativity (Lego robotics: there’s plenty of teaching one can do, but students can figure out more than you’d think)
• Take a regular task that needs to be completed, but offer markers and construction paper to complete it. Surprisingly motivating for some.
• Teach with play-dough or bubbles.
• Make assignments something actually useful in real life (create a welcome video for new students to the school, compile student writing into a book for the school library, write book reviews for a website anyone can view, finding Twitter members who tweet about a topic that relates to a relevant topic to you, etc.

What are your methods of motivating students, teachers, your own children, etc.?

PS: If anyone will be at ISTE this month, I'd love to meet up!