The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.

Have you heard about the candle problem, devised by the psychologist Karl Dunker in 1945 or the work done by the economist Dan Areily?

The experiments they did show a surprising fact about motivation. People think it is all carrots and sticks but maybe it's not.

There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Here is what science knows. One: Those 20th century rewards, those motivators we think are a natural part of business, do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances. Two: Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity. Three: The secret to high performance isn't rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive-- the drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things cause they matter.

Find out more in this amazing talk.