“People ask me, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is of no use.’There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron… If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.” George Mallory, Climbing Everest: The Complete Writings of George Mallory
Above is a quote by George Mallory —around whom still the mystery remains whether he reached the top of Everest or not— that for me depicts true motivation. No monetary reward, but the sheer joy and intrinsic value of the act itself is the reward.
In his book “Drive, the surprising truth about what motivates us”, Daniel Pink discusses a new framework for motivation without “carrots and sticks” that is more suited for complex knowledge work in today’s world. The “motivation 3.0” framework encompasses intrinsic motivation over external motivators, such as financial rewards, which is backed by psychological experiments and numerous scientific papers.
Current motivators in organisations include regularly if-then rewards, even for the most creative tasks. Research has shown however, that if-then rewards narrow the focus of a person, which has a positive effect when a solution is clear, but has negative effects on solving problems that require creativity. The motivation of people for such tasks can diminish making the exiting task a drudge.
“human beings have an intrinsic inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lifes.”
There is however a solution that still allows the use of external rewards without them breaking down the intrinsic motivation. A reward should then be unexpected and presented after the task has been completed. From a person’s mind, the reward will not be associated with the completed task, and thus not detrimental for the intrinsic motivation. The connection with salaries for employees of organisations, is that salary can be seen as a threshold motivator; once it meets a certain baseline, of which a person can live comfortably without financial worries, any increase in salary will not significantly enhance performance or motivation of the person. This instills that compensation, salary, should be fair based on the tasks and responsibilities.
For more insights I do recommend you view Pink’s TED talk, and read the book, it is truly an good read and does change your perspective on motivation. In recent weeks I have picked up this book more often than I have done some books during my time at university, reading and re-reading certain sections just to get my head round the underlying concepts. Because I liked the book so much, some days ago, I have given one of my managers a copy of the book for his education ;-).
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