A Book Review

I'm but a few pages away from finishing Daniel Pink's "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" (a video link here will take to an RSA Animate during one of Mr. Pink's talks about motivation), and I must say that it was quite a good read. Very straight-forward and understandable, Mr. Pink breaks down the things people need most to be fully motivated, things which, unfortunately, many work places (not to mention schools! But a diatribe about standardized testing will come later, I'm sure) have failed to embrace. And from a personal perspective, the ideas of the book have begun to alter the way I hear people talk about work. Yesterday I was discussing ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) with a classmate, and how places that have fully embraced it have forgone set schedules, meetings, and even mandating that work must be done from the office only, and her question was "Well, [the company of discussion] only has 22 employees. How would one go about managing a company of 300,000?". A fair question, but at the same time no one I've ever heard of directly oversees that many people solo, but more importantly, there's still this completely over-riding notion that people need to be "managed". That we have to have our tasks and assignments laid out for us and then babysat until they're done.

Here I think back to one of the first things any Leadership class discusses: the difference between leaders and managers. If we keep thinking that we need to layout an exact outline for someone to follow or it won't get done, all you're going to get is that. And nothing more. As a facilitator, one of my favorite things is seeing how different groups, different people approach a problem and find completely different solutions that accomplish the task. I don't tell them how it needs to be done. I suggest a final result, a goal, and the group comes up with, more often than not, a uniquely creative and innovative solution. Often something at least slightly different than I'd ever seen before.

I suppose if we simply begin to have confidence in people, they will surprise you. Anyway, good book, quick read, check it out!