About the book...
From Daniel H. Pink, the author of the bestselling A Whole New Mind, comes a paradigm-shattering look at what truly motivates us and how we can use that knowledge to work smarter and live better.
Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates
Us, his provocative and persuasive new book. The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He demonstrates that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the twentieth century, that’s precisely the wrong way to
motivate people for today’s challenges. In Drive, he examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.
Drive is bursting with big ideas—the rare book that will change how you think and transform how you live.
My Reflection...
While reading the book, I kept on looking for an answer to what motivates people to do what they do? In the quest to find an answer to the question, I reflected on what I do and why I do certain tasks. I also talked with my students, my mother and my colleagues. While I was talking with them, I was constantly going back and forth to understand various researches done to find the surprising truth about what motivates people.
My conversations:
Scenario 1
I walk into the class and see students playing computer games. Everyone is so engrossed that they don’t realize I have entered the room. I observe them for a while..I see excitement on their face involvement in the game..Sitting there for a while..I wonder…what is the magic of motivation in these computer games which keeps these students so engrossed?
The next day in my advisory class, I asked the students about their involvement in the computer games every day. They said, it is challenging and it is fun. It refreshes our mind. There is a sense of achievement. So aren’t Math problems challenging? I asked. They said, ‘yes they challenge us, but it’s not fun”. This opened up to a very interesting conversation. We discussed about their passion in sports, photography, robotics, movie making etc. This led to a good discussion in the class with everyone sharing their passion.
Scenario 2
I go home and I see my mother busy for nearly an hour or two - what is she busy with…playing her favorite game on the mobile..Someone who cannot sit for 30 min in any social function can sit for 3-4 hr playing games…I wonder-what’s the magic?
I asked my mother the same question…she said, it is fun. It is fulfilling to win a game even when I am playing alone..
Both this conversations kept me wondering for few days… What is working for them? And I connected with these lines..
‘That enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project is the strongest and most pervasive driver”..pg 23
What drives participants is “a set of predominantly intrinsic motives”- in particular, “the fun…of mastering the challenge of a given (software) problem”..pg 23
Then I asked my students - What if I start paying you for every game you win or the best photograph you click or every football match you win? I thought they will all be excited to earn few bucks and accept the challenge. But to my utter surprise, they unanimously said, ‘No Ma’am, that will lose our interest and the excitement. We will not be able to give our best as we will have to live up to the expectation of the reward and we will have to meet a specific deadline’
“if then” rewards require people to forfeit some of their autonomy…..And that can spring a hole in the bottom of their motivation bucket, draining an activity of its enjoyment..pg 38
Then I asked the most common question to them “Why do they work hard for the examination? If the reward is not so important for them, why do they strive to score maximum marks- aiming to be toppers in class? They said, we work hard so that our parents feel happy. We are good students’ in our teachers’ eyes. This was a big surprise for me. Do students come to school because they are forced to come? Do they study to please their parents and teachers?
But goals imposed by others…can sometimes have dangerous side effects pg. 50
It took a while for me to realize, the core to motivation is internal to the individual involved. Work enjoyment and performance are closely linked. If people really enjoy what they do, they are likely to do it well. Again, the need to understand what creates enjoyment in the people most qualified and apt to maximize performance on and individual and team basis. What works for one may have the opposite effect on another and it is a teacher’s job to understand her students individually and as a group and provide the "motivational components" necessary to maximize performance for each student and the whole class at the same time. For some to maximize performance autonomy is good / required. For others autonomy may be counterproductive, with more guidance needed to provide the most effective performance. Autonomy is earned as a result of purpose and mastery.
Scenario 3
While reading chapter 3 Type I and Type X (pg 70), the following lines helped me reflect deeply.
Think about yourself. What energizes you-what gets you up in the morning and propels you through the day-come from inside or outside? How about men and women around you work? Pg 78
My reflection helped me to instantly sense into which category I belonged to. It was Type I. But I was not sure, so I took the test recommended on the last page. Are you type I or Type X?
I was surprised by the test result !! It read -You are Type X
And I said how this is possible? I was so sure that I fit into these lines “For Type I’s, the main motivator is the freedom, challenge, and the purpose of the undertaking itself; any other gains are welcome, but mainly a bonus” pg 78
I thought of sharing it with few of my collegues
I sent the survey link to 10 of my colleagues who I thought fit into the Type I category. 6 out of 10 sent me the result. All of them wrote ‘TYPE X’. All of them had saw themselves in Type I category, but the result surprised them as well…
I took the opportunity to discuss ‘Drive’ with few of my colleagues who gave me a great insight and enhanced my understanding on motivation.
My conclusion
Motivation is a driving force. It’s a carrot on a stick, an incentive, an attraction, an urge, a triumphant call. Motivation is a siren song, a persuasive spirit, a compulsion, an obsession. Your ability to get things done is determined by your level of personal motivation. Reminding yourself of what you want is a powerful motivator to help you get what you want.
Posters that motivate me….
My burning questions:
· To what extent autonomy works with students?
· With so many attractive alternatives competing for students' attention, motivating them to focus and perform is increasingly becoming a difficult task… How do teachers continue to motivate students who have different interests?
Response of my fellow participants....
- Dr. Hunsburger - Hi Sakina
Yours was the first QQC that I read today but I didn't reply right away. Suddenly when I was reading Joe's QQC - the brilliance of what you have done really struck me.
Undertaking your own research into motivation - to understand what motivates your students at once helps them understand and examine what motivates them. And that is really useful self-knowledge for them to have. Whether in your class or another class they can use that knowledge to help them accomplish what matters to them.
And of course it gives you really valuable information and allows you to think about how you can reframe things so that they are more likely to feel motivated.
I admire the way you observed them and listened to them and sought their ideas about what motivates them. It gives me some new ideas about how to approach some interesting behaviours we sometimes see in the middle school and helps me see the behaviours from a different perspective. Instead of being troubled by the amount time some of our students spend at lunch on computers, I might instead ask what can I learn from this? - Mr. Patel - Hi Sakina.
First of all, those slides really caught my attention. In a way, they motivated me to read your QQC. Second, I liked the way you put up scenarios in order to put forward the point that you were trying to make. Particularly in the first scenario, you put across something that I feel Daniel Pink has missed out on, and that is fun. I have observed this myself and I believe that people like to do something simply for the fun involved. Pink's elements could be even absent.
I also like the way you tried to get answers to your pondering by talking to other people, rather than as I did, only think. Again the point that you made about enjoyment being highly subjective is really remarkable.
And yes, the questions you raised at the end also flashed through my mind. I mean, could we come up with a recipe for motivation? - Ms. Cooper - Sakina,
I enjoyed reading your QQC, particularly your early reflections on your students being heavily engaged in games in your classroom. I thought it fabulous that you had this discussion with them and reading their conclusions as to the reasons for being so engaged in gaming compared to other areas of their schooling. What stood out to me is that the answer for us as teachers is given simply to us by your students… The computer games are challenging, fun, refreshing and provides a sense of achievement. Unlike the maths problems that are of course challenging but not fun. This insight into what intrinsically motivates students is exactly what we as teachers need to be listening to. We cannot just set a task that is challenging, it also needs to tick the other boxes as well. Quite simply it cannot be one without the others….So as teachers our challenge is to set tasks(and yes that requires much deeper thinking from our perspective) that tick all the boxes. The answer is exactly as the students have laid it out to us. - Mr. Krueger - Sakina,
I really loved the first scenario you laid out. It was interesting because you took something that can be frustrating to teachers, like playing computer games in class and sought the motivation. I think the answers were fascinating. It makes me wonder if there is ways to use some of those interests to get at what we want them to be doing. I wonder how many of those kids would want to learn how to create or understand those games on a deep level; or if it is just a motivation for them to play and have a fun challenge.
I think that the fact you are asking so many great questions of motivation to your class is an inspiration. It reminds me that I need to do the same to mine.
Ben - Emily Grandison - I love the connection you made with your situation by even conducting interviews and analysis yourself, both within your work life and home life. It was hard to consider the book without thinking about our own lives, and your reflection towards the end of your piece was brave. Thinking about how we would categorise ourselves is a tough job!
It is interesting the balance between the challenging and fun you mentioned within the maths problems you asked your students about. This is constant challenge of teachers everyday.
I think you really realized something important that I missed, that motivation is indeed relative to an individual. This related to your findings when students mentioned their motivation to do well in exams, although not ideal all of the time in life, sometimes our reward and motivation is making others happy with our actions or achievements.
Thanks Sakina– really liked your observations and connections to your individual world!
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