Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

In February of 2010, Daniel Pink published his fourth book about work. Here is a brief outline of his work treatises:

1) 2002 - Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself  
This book looks at the rise of the individual entrepreneur, the creative, the "free agent" who seeks to do meaningful work for himself and rejects the structure and limitations of the corporate enterprise. Technology has reached the point that an individual can produce and connect like never before and compete with larger enterprises.

2)  2006 - A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future 
This book identifies the 6 new skills will define those that are irreplaceable in organizations of the future: story, empathy, sympathy, meaning, design, play.  This book was a breakout success in the independent school world as its ideas converged with a shifting in the conversation about how we are educating our students for a whole new technology driven "wiki world" that requires less content knowledge and more thinking skills and abilities. How are we in our schools fostering right brain skills?

3) 2008 - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need
This book targeted the in college and recently graduated young adults to inspire them to jump headlong into the new world of work despite having been educated and indoctrinated by very conventional educational institutions.  There are 6 big ideas: 
1) There is no plan.  Learn as you go - lifelong learning
2) Think Strengths, not weaknesses.  Discover and make your strengths a competitive advantage.
3) It's not about you.  It's about empathy for your client.
4) Persistence trumps talent every time. Have a growth mindset
5) Make excellent mistakes. Learning is hands on.
6)  Leave an Imprint. Have a large, transformative purpose.


4) 2010 - Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates You
Drive is based on the premise that the factory model organization for the industrial age with its systems, structures, and motivation assumptions will not yield the inspiring, creative, innovative work environments that we need in today's culture.  The old Motivation 2.0 way of sticks and carrots (rewards and punishments), Pink argues, is actually a factor in perpetuating the sluggish status quo organization that keeps plugging along while the world changes around them.  

Motivation 3.0 is about three main ideas:  autonomy, mastery, purpose:

autonomy - self direction and trusted environments are fulfilling and motivating;
mastery - we need authentic feedback and challenges that match our skills and interests;
purpose - a sense of creating and impacting something larger than ourselves.

For schools, Drive can be used to think about three big areas:

an individual's personal performance and engagement;
an team or division's structures and systems and the motivation tools used as we strive to reach goals;
the classroom and the environment that the teacher creates  and manages for the learner.