(Book) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Drive attempts to present a progressive view of motivation. The systems of reward and punishment may have worked in the past, but if we are to find lasting satisfaction in our lives, then it will be necessary to pay attention to the internal motivators of it. The book aligns with several of my views about what work is, and what motivates me persosonally. Parts of the book feel a bit like a rehash of others, but I think the windom in it is presented in a way we can all relate to.

Long story short...

Motivators like money have been scientifically shown to diminish performance and intrinsic interest in an activity
Modern motivation like sense of mission, mastering a skillset, or setting personal goals makes for happier and more productive people
People can be intrinsically or externsically motivated. Working for quick rewards and recognition works in the short term, but not in the long term. Also reduces overall happyness
Finding "flow" in your work can make you more productive and happy. Chunk long term goals into the right level of challenge. Think Goldilocks and the Three Work Tasks.
To be happier with what you do try to align to these thre things

Autonomy: What you do, how you do it, and with who
Mastery: The challenge of mastering something is important, and persivering while doing it
Purpose: A worthy goal that adds meaning to your life

And below are my rough notes

Motivation 1.0. Basic biological drives; eat, survive and reproduce.
Motivation 2.0: External motivations such as rewards and punishments.
Motivation 3.0: Intrinsic reward

In an experiment, monkeys are rewarded for a task. We expected the rewards to drive better performance, but the exact opposite occurred. The incentivized monkeys made more errors and solved the puzzle less frequently.
The external rewards "intensified interest and enhanced performance" but caused subjects to "lose intrinsic interest for the activity.".
Organizations use external rewards and punishments, and ignore natural, intrinsic motivation.
Wikipediea is driven by the intrinsic motivation of contributors around the world. Microsoft's Encarta failed despite the large corporate backing it had.
Job satisfaction and productivity depended on other factors like satisfaction, achievement and personal growth, desire to master a challenge, and giving back.

For-profit companies are motivation 2.0, while B-Corp is 3.0. They are "for benefit" companies driven by purpose.
2.0 is maximizing profits. Motivation 3.0 doesn't reject profits, but believes that purpose is a very powerful motivator
Think about TOMS shoes, for every pair sold, they donate shoes to a child in need in a developing country
Paying donors for their blood backfires. The reward diminishes donor’s intrinsic motivation

Motivation 2.0 suffers from cheating, shortcuts, sets higher expectations for rewards, and unethical behavior as employees become addicted to short term rewards like bonuses and contests. It undermines employees intrinsic motivation towards work.
We don't need to monitor employees like we did in the past. Work is more interesting, autonomous, and self directed. It is more heuristic and leads to better flow. Motivation 2.0 doesn't work well in this modern environment.
As rewards go up, performance and creativity suffers. It narrows focus and hinders solutions.
Rewards tend to narrow a person's focus, which is helpful for algorithmic problems when there's a clear path to a solution. But narrow focus can obscure the solution when it requires creativity or conceptual thinking.
Don't forget.. 3.0 works as long as baseline needs are met (employees don't worry about money)
Millennials value team and giving back to society more than financial rewards

Altruistic Behavior: Showing a disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others; unselfish.
Heuristic Behavior: Enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves.

Goal setting works. People avoid distraction, achieve more and cheat less. However this only works if they set the goals themselves.
Shift rewards from "if then" to "now that" rewards
Rewards should be unexpected and offered after the task is complete
Give feedback: People seek and appreciate useful, specific feedback

Type A: competitive, aggressiveness and impatient
Type B: intelligent and ambitious, but emotionally steady.

Type X: Extrinsic, driven by external rewards and punishments, need recognition, work hard for short term goals, fame, beauty, power, poor mental health -- Motivation 2.0.
Type I: Intrinsic, driven by autonomy, mastery and purpose, curious, greater well being -- Motivation 3.0

Type I's Outperform Type X's in the Long Run

People need three needs meet to be happy and productive: Competence, Autonomy, Relatedness

Autonomy (Chapter 4) Mastery (Chapter 5) Purpose (Chapter 6)

Autonomy: choosing our own path based on internal motivations, not influenced or forced.

What you do
When you do it
How you do it
Who you do it with

Google's 20% meets these criteria
ROWE: Results Only Work Environment.
Allowing employes to work in self-organizing teams increased satisfaction with their work.

Zappos keeps their call center employees happy by allowing them to handle calls how they see fit. Lots of freedom in an otherwise micromanaged job.

Customer service calls are routed to representatives working from home. These employees have no commute time and no monitoring, resulting in higher productivity and job satisfaction

Ensure success by handing freedom and control back to individuals.

Flow

Children playing are a great example of flow. They are completely absorbed in what they are doing, and do it for enjoyment.

Flow: has 3 requirements: clear goal, immediate feedback, challenge is not to easy or too difficult

You are more likely to reach flow at work than at play.

** You could live a much happier life by using flow to achieve mastery. Organize your tasks into manageable pieces, where the challenge level is right, and you can see results

Intelligence Fixed Mindset: The belief that intelligence, like someone's height, is fixed. These people avoid challenge to affirm their intelligence.

Intelligence Growth Mindset: The belief that intelligence can grow, like muscles strengthening with exercise. These people will work harder.

Purpose, the third element of Type I behavior, provides the context for great work. Purpose points to a destination that's a worthy goal

The professional does the thing he loves even on days he doesn't feel like doing them. This is "grit" which is "perseverance and passion for long-term goals."

This quote sounds a bit like the War of Art

Grit the best predictor of college grades

Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour rule. Mastery requires consistency, and not switching goals.

"Work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do." -- Steve Jobs

Autonomy and mastery are essential for great work. Autonomy unleashes creativity and effort while the pursuit of mastery puts us on the path to long-term growth.