DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

A lot of us have experienced what Dan Pink covers in his new book, DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.  You know that feeling inside that sometimes goes like this “maybe this job is a waste of time and I should do something else”, or “my day completely disappeared – this doesn’t even feel like work.”  Well, you’re not crazy (and neither am I).  Those feelings you’ve had in your gut and your heart are now explained by Dan Pink using case studies and, well, science.

Pink explains that what drives workers has evolved from basic survival, to reward/punishment scenarios, to three core principles that drive today’s knowledge workers:

• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Purpose

Preceded by a foundation in how motivation used to work and how it slowly came unraveled, each point  of the new motivation (Motivation 3.0″) is explored in depth in a separate chapter.   Using examples for Zappos, Google, 3M, and others, DRIVE shares what companies are doing to generate remarkable results and how these “radical” methods can be justified to the bottom line.

“A central idea of this book has been the mismatch between what science knows and what business does. The gap is wide.  Its existence is alarming.  And though closing it seems daunting, we have reasons to be optimistic.”

The timing on this book is fantastic as the new year rolls in and folks often ponder what exactly how they are spending their time.  If someone asks you how your day was and you answer, “Okay”, then maybe you should get your hands on a copy of DRIVE. It just might help you fill in some of those missing pieces.  If your days are just “okay” then that’s a problem and only you can fix it.

A lot of business books like this lead off with their best stuff and slowly fade until you feel like the last third is basically filler.  Not DRIVE.  This book hits its stride around the midway point and finishes with some fantastic examples of how to implement what was covered in the book.  It’s a nice finishing touch to a book that could have left a reader with that “now what do I do” feeling. Plus, the very end of the book is a fantastic recap of each chapter and a short glossary.

Overall, it’s a fast read at around 200 pages and it’s definitely worth picking up.  There’s good stuff in there for anyone really thinking about what the hell they’re doing, parents concerned with their kid’s education, managers in large or small organizations, as well as entrepreneurs feeling around for a few more pieces of the puzzle.

I do have some questions for the author, like:

• Is this an American thing or is this kind of evolution happening throughout the world (something tells me it’s an American thing)?
• Does he see different reactions to these principles from white collar organizations to blue collar manufacturing businesses?
• And a few on his process of research and writing…

So, if anyone knows Dan Pink, please send him my way.  Maybe Techshelf can even get him on Skype for a quick interview!

NOTE:  For you Kindle folks (or Nook-sters), there aren’t many images or graphic so you’re safe in grabbing that download.  Sure, I love my Kindle but when there are lots of images, charts, or illustrations, it unfortunately comes up short.

Holy Press Kit! With all this material, who needs to read the book?! Well, I did anyway because that's the Techshelf way...

More around the web about the author/book:

• DanPink.com
• Daniel Pink’s TED Talk on YouTube
• On Amazon: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
• Dan Pink on Twitter: http://twitter.com/danielpink

Dan Pink’s Twitter Review:

Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose.

Disclosure: Thanks to Matthew @ Riverhead Books for the advanced review copy!