Behavioral Economics Upended
In just ten minutes, this video creatively and convincingly demonstrates the utter folly demonstrated by our common modern understanding of compensation and incentives in the workplace. (Thanks to new acquaintance Guillaume Gautherau for the recommendation!) Highlighting research done by economists from MIT, Carnegie Mellon and University of Chicago (hardly bastions of progressive thought), the video debunks the concept that more money makes people work harder. Leveraging the example of Linux, the thesis points to three primary motivations for the best and brightest people of our generation: autonomy, mastery and purpose.
The work is a collaboration between Daniel Pink, renown author and authority on modern workstyle, and RSAnimate, a division of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), a multidisciplinary cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress in the UK.
Progressives, social entrepreneurs, free-lancers, creatives and anyone else mindful of cultural transformation will find the video a great investment of 10 minutes (and if you haven’t seen the RSAnimate’s unique style, you’re in for a double treat).
Greg,
Since I’ve been bugging you today I did some browsing and found this video. Incredible. I have been saying as much for years to my bosses…I think it comes through in how people really dislike to be micro-managed, especially on non-algorithmic type activities. I’ve noticed that in algorithmic activities people want to pass the burden of thinking as much as possible to the boss. In other words, they just want to be told what to do, how to do it, etc. However, when their job involves some creativity (sales, marketing, etc…) they just want to be left alone.
I would add a fourth quality to the “Autonomy, mastery and purpose” list: appreciated. People need to feel that they are actually creating something through their process and being at least somewhat successful at it as well. How to manage that sense of success is very difficult.