Dan Pink and Motivation

Dan Pink is all about motivation. And his TED talk expressed that clearly and powerfully. Pink used his confidence and evidence to strongly share “What science knows is not what business does.”

The big idea is “carrots and sticks.” In other words, he talks extensively on rewards and punishments in business. According to research, rewards narrow the mind and focus it on step-by-step procedures. Therefore, rewards work well for the kind of jobs that have very specific, orderly ways of working. Pretty much left-brain oriented jobs benefit from this form of extrinsic motivation. Unfortunately, as Pink states in his book A Whole New Mind, the world is evolving towards more right-brain oriented jobs; studies have shown that reward systems actually hinder peoples’ personal motivation of simply wanting to accomplish a task. As the world is evolving towards a more creative, less orderly way of thinking- motivation techniques also need to change. Businesses need to become more casual and independently directed in order to succeed and harness this natural, intrinsic motivation inside humans. This was all very obvious to the world, and the success of future businesses. However, what does it mean for kids my age, high school students?

Teachers offer A’s for hard work, parents let their kids go out when they do chores, and coaches give starting positions for the best players. This reward system focuses kids in the short term and encourages them to work hard in order to quickly get what they want. This may be good at first, they may get the A, the party or the starting spot; but in the end students lose their internal passion for those things. A child who loves math may hate it after working themselves too hard just for the grade. A caring kid might stop doing things around the house just to help out because they know they will gain nothing from it. And the worst thing, to me at least, would be a kid losing their passion for a sport or hobby because they stopped playing for themselves and only played to get that starting spot. Kids succeed when there is less pressure and when they do things just because they are curious. Educators, parents and coaches should use this to their advantage. Yes, kids want good grades and to be good at sports, but when they are only doing it to get the simple reward- they are less motivated. Kids will succeed if they are trying for themselves and themselves only. Passion is being killed by the reward system in kids’ lives, and everyone needs to realize this. Let the kids grow and succeed how they want; the force is not necessary because it will only hinder them.

Daniel Pink made these points all very clear. His presentation was strong and loud. He used his powerful voice to pound in the message- he made the viewers listen. Once he captured the attention of everyone, he relayed his points with organization and repetition. The highlighted phrase above was repeated several times throughout the speech, making it more memorable. All these techniques were very helpful in making his TED talk stand out, and standing out is the main focus of a TED talk. In my own I hope to be able to capture the essence of confidence as he did.