Inspiring and Motivating a Group

What makes a workplace engaging, healthy, fulfilling, and productive? This is one of the questions that Dan Pink addresses in Drive. The old industrial age thinking is that rewards motivate us and punishment encourages us to behave right.  Pink suggests that rewards and punishment work in the short term and for routine, tedious tasks that are quantifiable and measurable like stuffing envelopes on a tight deadline, paying per envelope is a good incentive.  But, Pink says, that sort of incentive does nothing to inspire and motivate creative, innovative thinking and problem-solving which is a huge part of most organizations these days, schools included, as we adapt to this very changed work environment with very shifted education outcomes.

So, what motivates and inspires creative problem solving? Below are a few suggestions from Dan Pink's Drive.


1) Google's 20% Time or Fedex Days
Having the time to focus and work uninterrupted on something that interests you, whose work you can direct the pace and depth of, that is meaningful and important.  Many of Google's innovative products and services have come from the autonomous work of their engineers during 20% time where they spent 20% of their work time of a project of interest to them.  Another version is Fedex days where everyone in the organization has to deliver something for the good of the whole overnight, they can choose the project scope, whom they would like to work with, how to present the results using the constraints of time and budget imposed by the company. This is a terrific way to get everyone focused on the whole and sharing the responsibility for innovation and improvement.


2) Peer to Peer Bonuses
Recognition and validation for good work is a huge motivator. One firm Pink highlights in Drive has authorized the whole team to give any co-worker a $50 bonus on the spot for work that is remarkable and exceptional.  There is great meaning and sense of reward in one's work being noticed and revered by peers who are more trusted and considered more authentic than management.


3) What's our company's one sentence and how are we doing at that?
One thing that should characterize an good independent schools is that there mission is relevant, actionable, and transformative. And, that each person and each division in the environment strives to live that mission.  So, being mission-driven could provide a unifying sense of purpose, a specific plan and focus for mastery, as well as opportunities for autonomy and creativity.