Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation
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0:14 - 0:17I need to make a confession, at the outset here.
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0:17 - 0:21A little over twenty years ago, I did something that I regret
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0:21 - 0:24Something that i'm not particularly proud of
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0:24 - 0:28Something that, in many ways, I wish no one would ever know.
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0:28 - 0:31but that here, I feel kind of obliged to reveal
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0:31 - 0:36In the late 1980's
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0:36 - 0:39In a moment of youthful indiscretion
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0:39 - 0:41I went to law school.
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0:41 - 0:48Now, In America
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0:48 - 0:51law is a professional degree. You get your University degree and then you go on to law school.
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0:51 - 0:54And when I got to Law School, I didn't do very well
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0:54 - 0:59to put it mildly, I didn't do very well.
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0:59 - 1:01I, in fact, graduated in the part of my law school class
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1:01 - 1:05that made the top 90%, possible. (laughter)
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1:05 - 1:13Thank you.
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1:13 - 1:15I never practiced law a day in my life.
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1:15 - 1:17I pretty much wasn't allowed to. (laughter)
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1:17 - 1:23But today, against my better judgement,
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1:23 - 1:25against the advice of my own wife,
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1:25 - 1:31I want to try to dust off some of those legal skills, or what's left of those legal skills.
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1:31 - 1:35I don't want to tell you a story, I want to make a case.
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1:35 - 1:43I want to make a hard-headed, evidence-based, dare I say, lawyer-ly case
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1:43 - 1:46for rethinking how we run our businesses
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1:46 - 1:50So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury
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1:50 - 1:52Take a look at this.
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1:52 - 1:55This is called the "Candle Problem". Some of you might have seen it before.
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1:55 - 2:01I was created in 1945 by a scientist named Karl Duncker
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2:01 - 2:05Duncker created this experiement that's used in a whole variety of experiements in behavioral science,
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2:05 - 2:07and here's how it works.
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2:07 - 2:09Suppose I am the experimentor. I bring you into a room.
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2:09 - 2:15I give you a candle, some thumb tacks, and matches, and I say to you, "Your job...
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2:15 - 2:20"... is to attach the candle to the wall so the wax doesn't drip onto the table."
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2:20 - 2:22So what would you do?
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2:22 - 2:27Now many people will begin trying to thumbtack the candle to the wall, it doesn't work
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2:27 - 2:31Some people, and I saw someone kind of make the motion over here, have this
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2:31 - 2:35great idea where they light the match
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2:35 - 2:38melt the side of the candle. Try to adhere it to the wall.
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2:38 - 2:41It's an awesome idea. Doesn't work.
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2:41 - 2:46And eventually after 5-10 min, most people figure out the solution, which you can see here.
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2:46 - 2:51The key is to overcome what's called, functional fixedness
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2:51 - 2:55You look at that box and you see it only as a receptical for the tacks
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2:55 - 2:57But, it can also have this other function
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2:57 - 3:00as a platform for the candle
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3:00 - 3:05Now,I want to tell you about an experiement using the Candle Problem.
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3:05 - 3:09by a scientist named Sam Glucksberg, who is now at Princton University in the US
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3:09 - 3:12This shows the Power of Incentives
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3:12 - 3:15Here's what he did, He gathered his participants and said
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3:15 - 3:18I'm going to time you. How quickly can you solve this problem?
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3:18 - 3:24To one group he said, "I'm going to time you to establish norms for how long it typically takes
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3:24 - 3:27someone to solve this sort of problem."
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3:27 - 3:30To the second group, he offered rewards.
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3:30 - 3:34He said if you are in the top 20%
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3:34 - 3:36of the fastest times, you get 5 dollars.
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3:36 - 3:39If you are the fastest of everyone we are testing here today...
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3:39 - 3:42you get 20 dollars. Now this is several years ago, adjusted for inflation
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3:42 - 3:48it's a decent sum of money for a few minutes of work, it's a nice motivator.
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3:48 - 3:52Question. How much faster did this group...
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3:52 - 3:55Solve the problem? Answer. It took them...
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3:55 - 4:00on average, three and a half minutes longer
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4:00 - 4:04Now this makes no sense, right?
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4:04 - 4:07I mean, I'm an American. I believe in free markets. That's not how...
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4:07 - 4:11it's supposed to work, right? If you want people to...
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4:11 - 4:15perform better, you reward them. Bonuses...
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4:15 - 4:19commissions, their own reality show, incentivise them.
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4:19 - 4:23That's how business works. But that's not happening here.
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4:23 - 4:26You've got an incentive designed to sharpen thinking and...
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4:26 - 4:32excellerate creativity and it does just the opposite.
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4:32 - 4:35It dulls creativity and blocks thinking. And what's interesting about...
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4:35 - 4:38this experiement, is that it's not an aberration
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4:38 - 4:44it's been replicated over and over and over again for nearly forty years.
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4:44 - 4:47These contingent motivators. If you do this...
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4:47 - 4:51Then you get that. Work in some circumstances but, if you do ...
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4:51 - 4:54a lot of taks, they actually don't work. Or often ...
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4:54 - 4:59They do harm. This is one of the most robust...
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4:59 - 5:02findings in social science...
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5:02 - 5:07and also one of the most ignored. I spent the last couple of years...
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5:07 - 5:11looking at the science of human motivation. Particularly the dynamics of extrinsic...
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5:11 - 5:16motivators and intrinsic motivators. and i'm telling ya, it's not even close.
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5:16 - 5:20if you look at the science, there is a mismatch between what science knows
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5:20 - 5:24and what buisness does. and what's alarming here
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5:24 - 5:28is that our business operating system. Thinks with a set of assumptions and protocalls
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5:28 - 5:30beneath our businesses. How we motivate people. How we apply our...
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5:30 - 5:34human resources. It's built entirely around
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5:34 - 5:38these extrinsic motivators. Around carrots and sticks. That's actually fine...
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5:38 - 5:42for many kinds of twentith century tasks. but for, many...
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5:42 - 5:4721st century tasks, that mechanistic, reward and punishment...
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5:47 - 5:50approach doesn't work , often doesn't work...
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5:50 - 5:53and often does harm. Let me show you what I mean. So Glucksberg...
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5:53 - 5:57did another experiement similar to this where he presented the problem in a slightly different
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5:57 - 6:00way. like this up here.
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6:00 - 6:06Attach the candle to the wall so the wax doesn't drip onto the table. Same Deal. You, we're timing for...
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6:06 - 6:10norms. You, we're incentivising. What happened ...
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6:10 - 6:13this time? This time the incentivised group...
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6:13 - 6:18kicked the other group's butt.
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6:18 - 6:19Why?
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6:19 - 6:22Because when the tacks are out of the box.
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6:22 - 6:28It's pretty easy, isn't it?
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6:28 - 6:31(laughter) If, then rewards work...
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6:31 - 6:33really well for those sorts of tasks. Where there is a...
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6:33 - 6:37simple set of rules and a clear desination to go to.
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6:37 - 6:41Rewards by their very nature, narrow our focus. Concentrate our...
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6:41 - 6:45minds. That's why they work in so many cases. So in tasks like this...
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6:45 - 6:49a narrow focus where you just see the goal right there ...
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6:49 - 6:53zoom in straight ahead to it, they work really well. But for the real ...
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6:53 - 6:57Candle Problem, you don't want to be looking like this. The solution is not over here.
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6:57 - 7:01The solution is on the periphery. You want to be looking around. That reward...
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7:01 - 7:05actually narrows our focus and restricts our possibilities. Let me tell you why this...
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7:05 - 7:09is so important. In Western Europe...
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7:09 - 7:13In many parts of Asia. In North America ...
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7:13 - 7:18In Australia, white collar workers are doing less of this kind of work
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7:18 - 7:22and more of this kind of work.
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7:22 - 7:25That routine, rule-based, left brain work...
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7:25 - 7:29certain kinds of accounting, certain types of financial analysis, certain kinds of computer programing...
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7:29 - 7:33has become fairly easy to outsource and fairly easy to automate.
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7:33 - 7:38Software can do it faster. Low cost providers around the world can ...
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7:38 - 7:40do it cheaper. So What really matters is...
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7:40 - 7:45more right brain, creative, conceptual kinds of ...
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7:45 - 7:50abilities. Think about your own work.
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7:50 - 7:53Are the problems that you face...
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7:53 - 7:57or even the problems we've been talking about here, are those the kinds of problems ...
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7:57 - 8:01that have a clear set of rules and a single solution? No!
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8:01 - 8:04The rules are mystifying. The solution, if it exists at all...
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8:04 - 8:08Is surprising, and non-obvious. Everybody ...
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8:08 - 8:12in this room is dealing with their own version of
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8:12 - 8:17the Candle Problem. And for Candle Problems of any kind...
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8:17 - 8:21in any field, Those if, then rewards,
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8:21 - 8:29those things we use in so many of our businesses, DON'T WORK.
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8:29 - 8:33Now, it makes me crazy.
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8:33 - 8:36Here's the thing. This is not a feeling.
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8:36 - 8:38Okay, I'm a lawyer. I don't believe in feelings.
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8:38 - 8:45This is not a philosophy. I'm an American. I don't believe in Philosophy.
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8:45 - 8:49This is ...
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8:49 - 8:52a FACT
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8:52 - 8:54Or as they say in my hometown of Washington, D.C.
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8:54 - 8:57a TRUE fact.
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8:57 - 9:01(Laughter)
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9:01 - 9:04Let me give you an example of what I mean. Let me marshal the evidence.
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9:04 - 9:07Because I'm not telling you a story, I'm making a case ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
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9:07 - 9:12Let me show you some evidence. Dan Realy, one of the great economists of our time.
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9:12 - 9:16He and three colleauges did a study of some MIT students.
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9:16 - 9:19They gave these MIT students a bunch of games. Games that involved...
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9:19 - 9:23creativity and motor skills and concentration. And they offered them ...
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9:23 - 9:27for performance, three levels of reward. Small rewards.
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9:27 - 9:32Medium Reward. Large Reward. Okay?
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9:32 - 9:35Do really well you get the large reward, and then on down.
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9:35 - 9:44What happened? (shown above)
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9:44 - 9:57(shown above)
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9:57 - 9:59Then they said, "Okay let's see ...
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9:59 - 10:02if there's any cultural bias. Let's go to India and test this.
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10:02 - 10:09Where the standard of living is lower, in India. A reward that is considered medium by ...
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10:09 - 10:12American standards is more meaningful there. Same Deal.
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10:12 - 10:14A bunch of games. Three levels of rewards. What happened ?
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10:14 - 10:18People offered the Medium level of rewards
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10:18 - 10:21Did no better that those offered the small reward.
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10:21 - 10:28And those that were offered the highest rewards, they did worst of all
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10:28 - 10:37(shown above)
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10:37 - 10:38(shown above)
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10:38 - 10:40Is this some ....
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10:40 - 10:44kind of touchy feely socialist conspiracy going on here?
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10:44 - 10:46No, these are economists from MIT.
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10:46 - 10:50From Carnige Melon, from the University of Chicago. And do you know what...
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10:50 - 10:56funded this research? The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States.
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10:56 - 10:58That's the American Experience.
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10:58 - 11:01That crossed the pond to the London School of Economics
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11:01 - 11:06alma mater of 11 Nobel Laureates
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11:06 - 11:09trainning ground for great economic thinkers like...
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11:09 - 11:13Geroge Soros, Freidrick Hayek, and Mick Jagger.
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11:13 - 11:17(laughter) Last month,
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11:17 - 11:22economist at LSE looked at 51 case studies
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11:22 - 11:25that had pay-for-performance plans inside companies. Here's what they found.
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11:25 - 11:29(Shown above)
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11:29 - 11:34(Shown Above)
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11:34 - 11:36There is a mismatch between what science knows, and ...
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11:36 - 11:40what business does. And what worries me as we stand here in the rubble ...
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11:40 - 11:45of the economic collapse is that too many organizations ...
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11:45 - 11:49are making their descisions, their policies about talent and people...
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11:49 - 11:53based on assuptions that are outdated...
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11:53 - 11:57unexamined and rooted more in folk lore
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11:57 - 12:01than in science. and if we really want to get out of this economic mess.
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12:01 - 12:04and if we really want high performance on those definitional tasks of the ...
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12:04 - 12:0921st century. The solution is not to do more...
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12:09 - 12:12of the wrong things. To entice people
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12:12 - 12:16with a sweeter carrot or threaten them with a sharper stick
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12:16 - 12:21we need a whole new approach. the good news about all this is that scientists studying ...
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12:21 - 12:24motivation have given us this new approach. It's an approach ...
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12:24 - 12:28built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do things...
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12:28 - 12:32because they matter, because they like it, because they are interesting, because they are important...
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12:32 - 12:35and to my mind, that new operating system for a ...
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12:35 - 12:40businesses revolves around 3 elements: AUTONOMY, MASTERY, AND...
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12:40 - 12:44PURPOSE. Autonomy, the urge to run your own lives
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12:44 - 12:48Mastery, the desire to get better and better at something that matters
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12:48 - 12:51And Purpose, the yearning to do what we do, in the...
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12:51 - 12:56service of something larger than ourselves. These are the building blocks...
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12:56 - 12:58of an entirely new operating system...
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12:58 - 13:01for our businesses. I want to talk today only about autonomy.
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13:01 - 13:05In the 20th Century, we came up with ...
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13:05 - 13:09the idea of management. Management did not eminate from nature. Management...
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13:09 - 13:13is not a tree, it's a televison set. Somebody invented it.
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13:13 - 13:17and it doesn't mean it's going to work forever.
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13:17 - 13:21management is great and traditional notions of management are great if you want...
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13:21 - 13:24compliance. But if you want engagement, self-direction works...
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13:24 - 13:28better. Let me give you some examples of some radical notions of ...
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13:28 - 13:33self-direction. What this means, and you don't see a lot of it.
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13:33 - 13:37The first stirings of something really interesting going on. because what it means is...
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13:37 - 13:40paying people adequately and fairly, absolutely. Getting the issue of ...
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13:40 - 13:44money off the table and then giving people lots of autonomy. let me give you an example.
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13:44 - 13:48How many of you have herad of the company 'Atlassian' ?
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13:48 - 13:53Okay, looks like less that half. (laughter)
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13:53 - 13:56Atlassian is an Austrailian
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13:56 - 14:00software company. and they do something incredibly cool. A few...
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14:00 - 14:02times a year they tell their engineers, "Go for the next...
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14:02 - 14:0624 hours and work on anything you want. As long as it's...
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14:06 - 14:11not part of your regular job." So the engineers use this time ...
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14:11 - 14:14to come up with a cool patch of code, to come up with an elegant hack...
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14:14 - 14:18then they present all of the stuff that they develop to their...
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14:18 - 14:22teammates, to the rest of the company, in this wild and willy all-hands meeting...
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14:22 - 14:26at the end of the day. And then, being Austrailians everybody...
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14:26 - 14:30has a beer. They call them FEDEX DAYS.
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14:30 - 14:33Why? Because you have...
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14:33 - 14:36to deliver something over night. (laughter) it's not bad.
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14:36 - 14:38It's a huge trademark violation, but it's pretty clever.
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14:38 - 14:44That one day of intense autonomy has produced a whole array of software ...
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14:44 - 14:47fixes that might never had existed. and it's worked so well the Atlassian...
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14:47 - 14:52has taken it to the next level with 20%time, done famously at ...
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14:52 - 14:56Google. Where engineers can spend 20% of their time working on anything they want.
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14:56 - 14:59They have autonomy over their time, their task, their team...
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14:59 - 15:03their technique. Radical amounts of autonomy. and at Google ...
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15:03 - 15:07as many of you know, about half of the new...
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15:07 - 15:11products in a typical year are birthed during that 20% time ...
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15:11 - 15:15Things like G-Mail, Orchid, Google news. Let me give you and even more...
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15:15 - 15:21radical example of it. Something called the RESULTS ONLY WORK ENVIRONMENT
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15:21 - 15:24The ROWE. Created by two American consultants in place at...
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15:24 - 15:25about a dozen companies around North America.
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15:25 - 15:29In a ROWE people don't have schedules.
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15:29 - 15:32They show up when they want. They don't have to be in the office...
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15:32 - 15:36at a certain time or any time. They just have to get...
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15:36 - 15:41their work done. How they do it, Where they do it, When they do it...
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15:41 - 15:44is totally up to them. Meetings in these kinds of environments are...
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15:44 - 15:48optional. What happens?
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15:48 - 15:51Almost across the board. Productivity goes up. Worker ...
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15:51 - 15:56engagement goes up. Worker statisfaction goes up. Turnover goes ...
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15:56 - 16:01down. AUTONOMY, MASTERY AND PURPOSE these are the building blocks...
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16:01 - 16:05of a new way of doing things. Now, some of you might look at this and say...
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16:05 - 16:09"Hmm, That sounds nice but, it's utopian." and I say...
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16:09 - 16:12"Nope. I have proof."
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16:12 - 16:17In the mid 1990's, Microsoft started an encyclopedia called 'Encarta'.
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16:17 - 16:18They had deployed all the right incentives.
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16:18 - 16:23They paid professionals to write and edit thousands of articles.
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16:23 - 16:28Well compensated managers oversaw the whole thing to make sure it came in on budget, and on time.
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16:28 - 16:32A few years later another encyclopedia...
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16:32 - 16:34got started. Different model.
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16:34 - 16:40Do it for fun. No one gets paid a cent, or a Euro, or a Yen.
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16:40 - 16:43Do it because you like to do it.
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16:43 - 16:48Now if you had, just 10 years ago, gone to an economist, anywhere, and said...
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16:48 - 16:51"Hey, I've got these two different models for creating an encyclopedia" If they...
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16:51 - 16:55went head to head, who would win? 10 years ago you could not have found...
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16:55 - 16:58a single, sober economist anywhere...
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16:58 - 17:03on planet earth (laughter) that would have predicted the Wikipedia Model
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17:03 - 17:06This is the Titanic battle between these two approaches. This is the...
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17:06 - 17:10Ali v. Fraiser of motivation. This is the Thrilla in Manilla.
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17:10 - 17:13Intrinsic Motivators vs. Extrinsic Motivators
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17:13 - 17:17AUTONOMY, MASTERY and PURPOSE vs. Carrots and Sticks. Who wins?
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17:17 - 17:21Intrinsic Motivation. AUTONOMY, MASTERY and PURPOSE in a knockout.
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17:21 - 17:26Okay, let me wrap up. There is a mismatch between ...
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17:26 - 17:29what science knows and what business does. and here's what science knows. ONE.
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17:29 - 17:34Those 20th century rewards, those motivatiors we think are the natural part of...
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17:34 - 17:37business, do work. But only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances.
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17:37 - 17:41TWO. Those IF, THEN rewards often
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17:41 - 17:45destroy creativity. THREE. The secret to high performance isn't ...
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17:45 - 17:48rewards and punishments but, those unseen intrinsic...
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17:48 - 17:52drives. The drive to do things for their own sake. The drive to do things...
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17:52 - 17:56because they matter. And here's the best part. We already know this.
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17:56 - 18:00The science confirms what we know in our hearts. So, if...
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18:00 - 18:04we repair this mismatch between what science knows and what business does. If we...
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18:04 - 18:09bring our notions of motivation into the 21st century.
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18:09 - 18:11If we get past this lazy, dangerous...
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18:11 - 18:14ideology of carrots and sticks
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18:14 - 18:19we can strengthen our businesses. We can solve a lot of those Candle Problems.
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18:19 - 18:23and maybe, maybe, maybe
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18:23 - 18:28we can change the world. I rest my case.
- Title:
- Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation
- Description:
-
http://www.ted.com Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 18:37
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