A review of Drive by Daniel Pink

I love reading books and thinking “oh wow that’s awesome, someone else thinks the way that I do, but it’s articulated really well and it’s a best seller!” Those were my thoughts while reading Daniel Pink’s Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. It is structured in three parts, so it’s only fitting that I discuss each of these parts in turn.

The first part discusses why the carrot and stick approach does not work for most jobs. Pink makes a distinction between algorithmic and heuristic work. Algorithmic tasks are those that are repetitive and don’t have much deviation on a day-to-day basis. Heuristic tasks are those that require creativity and innovation. To put this into my own context, it’s like the difference between Taylorised manufacturing work and, well, the type of work that I do – learning and development. The argument is that the carrot and stick approach does have some application to algorithmic work, but with a warning to be careful about when and how this applied (read the book if you’d like more information on this). However, financial reward for heuristic work can stifle creativity and thus performance. It reminds me of a paper I took at University, which I think was called something to do with reward and motivation. The key message I got from my lecturer was “make sure people are paid appropriately and then forget about it”. There are other things that motivate people to perform, as discussed in the second section.

The second part of the book presents autonomy, mastery and purpose as key elements in motivating the heuristic workforce. Lately, I seem to be coming across several arguments for three elements that impact individual performance. Daniel Pink discusses autonomy, mastery and purpose; Peter Boxall (UoA Business School Professor and my Masters supervisor) uses ability, motivation and opportunity; in Leading through Values: Linking company culture to business strategy, Michael Henderson, Dougal Thompson and Shar Henderson use the terms head, heart and hands. To use a term I picked up on a trip to Vietnam a few years ago they’re ‘same, same, but different’, meaning that they are essentially the same thing but told in different ways.

But back to the three elements in Drive, I found the concept of mastery interesting because I had not encountered this before. I think that the idea of flow, presented as part of mastery, where we are in a perfect balance between challenge and capability, is an interesting idea from an L&D perspective and requires further examination. The concept of autonomy formed part of my Masters thesis, so this was not really new. But it’s nice to know that the elements of control and decision-making capability as motivational factors are more widely discussed. Lastly, purpose, I guess that is where everyone talks about vision and values being important for business. But it’s not often put in the context of an interrelated and interdependent factor. There are a number of practical applications from this book that are tied together in the last part.

In the third part, each chapter is neatly summarized and there are practical exercises for implementing the ideas presented. There is also a reading list for anyone interested in cultivating the ideas further. With my reading list starting to get a little low now, I think this is a good place to start.

Overall, this is an easy read. I hope that, if you read this book, it encourages you to rethink the way you reward and recognize. I’ve had carrots dangled in front of me before but I think they’ve just stressed me out more than anything. Furthermore, financial reward is usually tied to a performance review process. If you perform this way then you will receive X increase. If you believe what Pink argues, then this could stifle creativity. Should we be doing things differently?