Daniel Pink in one of his later books, says that the research of Deci and Ryan, refined over the last 30 years, confirms that we humans need three things to make us happy, feel connected and productive. They are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.
If you have a Purpose and attain Mastery, whether in the field of Business, Money, Career, Profession or Relating, and are fortunate enough to have Autonomy (that is, not being answerable to a boss), then you have the ingredients for a successful life.
Trials have been done to reaffirm 30 years later that, even if you have a job and are answerable to management, the secret to the success of the company and ultimately to you is the creative satisfaction you get out of your participation and involvement, without the fear of punishment or the carrot of rewards.
Would you believe that even rewards dull the best minds and are only efficient when the most boring and predictable of jobs is to be finished or completed or in the field of sports?
The funny thing is that it was shown that in the areas where massive incentives were paid for performance and the bottom line, the worse was the result; think Enron, Wall Street, The Merchant Bankers and the stock market operators.
The tests showed that companies like 3M, Google, Microsoft and others produced the most creative solutions and innovative answers to problems in their 20% time off from their ordinary work for which they were paid.
Google has had a long standing policy that all employees particularly the engineers and other creative people can take one day off a week or about 20% of their work time and work on anything they like NOT connected with their ordinary job.
This rule of course doesn’t apply to predictable routine jobs where no imagination is required such as punching out numbers, accounting, law, factory jobs or work which has a set of rules as guidelines which need to be obeyed and respected.
Motivation 1 is our earlier heritage such as the caveman where water, food and carnal desire (leading to the survival of the species) are the operating software.
The more innovative companies and people realise that the carrot and stick approach is fundamental to what is called Motivation 2.
The other Motivation Pink refers to as Motivation I (Intrinsic), which is where we do what we do for the intrinsic satisfaction of the job. This approach was shown to be far more popular and in the long run proves to be a superior approach.
My feeling is that if we can move more to this heuristic approach rather than the algorithmic one, namely working for pay/ rewards, we will be far happier and achieve longer lasting happiness.
Image Credit: FreeImages.com-Svilen Milev
Chris Borrett
I am in a new and exciting venture with another Business Coach, Lana Ratapu, offering a FREE workshop called “Business Mechanics for Hard Working Business Owners” on Thursday, 23rd June, 2016. It’s a whole day event at the Campbelltown Catholic Club, inclusive of all-paid morning and afternoon tea.
If you happen to be within the area or you know someone who is and will greatly benefit from this inspiring and valuable workshop, please register here. Booking is limited to 30 slots only.