Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

The next chapter focuses on how companies and organizations can foster Type I Behavior in their employees and members. Companies can do this by:

• Making time for “noncommissioned work,” i.e., work that is unofficial and driven by passion and curiosity rather than profit (such as the “20% Time” or “FedEx Days” described in Chapter 4)
• Conducting an audit to measure how much autonomy employees actually have by asking them a few questions about their work, time, techniques, and teams, then using the collected data to make improvements
• Having employees give themselves regular performance reviews by setting themselves both large and small goals early on, then honestly assessing their own progress later
• Letting employees give each other bonuses, rather than having bonuses given out by the boss, which makes bonuses more meaningful and also avoids the pitfalls of contingent “if-then” awards
• For bosses, being willing to relinquish control over their employees by letting people set their own goals, using less controlling language, and holding office hours like a college professor to encourage employees to come in and talk
• Having people in the organization anonymously write down their answer to the question “What is (our organization’s) purpose?,” then seeing how everyone’s answers align with each other
• Using Robert Reich’s pronoun test to assess employees’ sense of purpose with their work: do employees refer to the company as “them” or “we”?

Pink criticizes company policies that are designed around trying to control a minority of bad workers at the expense of the majority of good workers. He argues that this mindset should be flipped on its head, and company policies should be designed to cater to the good workers. Many companies are afraid of trying a results-only work environment (ROWE) because they’re afraid of the employees who might be lazy and take advantage of it. Pink argues, however, that when you design policies to restrict bad behavior, they can actually encourage more bad behavior, whereas designing policies on the assumption that most workers are ethical and responsible actually helps to encourage good behavior.

When working with teams, Pink suggests a few ways to ensure everyone has the “Goldilocks tasks” that facilitate flow. Managers should assemble teams with diverse range of skills and experiences and should avoid pitting team members against each other. If some team members find their tasks too easy or too challenging, managers should shift tasks between team members. People should be motivated by reminding them of their shared purpose rather than bribing them with monetary rewards. Pink suggests following the model of “agile” software development, which focuses on building projects around highly motivated individuals and keeping the development process simple and loose.

Finally, Pink addresses employees who might feel overwhelmed by the challenge of changing their company’s environment. He suggests first starting small and asking what you can change in your own space, then letting those small changes pile up over time. Then, he says you should just take your own subversive steps to change the system in your own way. Further, if you want to persuade your boss to change, focus mainly on results (boosting profits, increasing sales, etc.) rather than theory and science.

Pink covers the subject of compensation, emphasizing the importance of pay that meets employees’ needs so that their intrinsic motivation can be set free. Employees should be paid fairly compared to other workers doing similar work, both within and outside of the company. When people feel they’re being unfairly paid, Pink says, they will lose their motivation. In fact, Pink suggests paying workers a little bit more than average. While it might go against conventional wisdom, companies who pay workers slightly more than what the market says they should tend to attract better workers, increase employee loyalty, and boost morale. Lastly, by basing pay on a variety of wide-ranging and long-term performance goals, managers can prevent workers from cutting corners to achieve short-term goals. He acknowledges that some people may believe these strategies won’t work for commission-based sales jobs, but he offers examples of sales companies that eliminated commissions in favor of flat rate salaries and subsequently saw improvements in sales, company morale, worker cooperation, and ethical behavior.