Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive is about intrinisic motivation or self motivation. The drives which lead us to excel; autonomy, purpose, and mastery. It is about how these drives are becoming more prevalent in the modern workplace. White collar work is going through the same route as blue collar work. It is being outsourced, homesourced, and automated. The creative aspects of white collar work are what survives. Daniel H. Pink is trying to counter current management theory which is often inadequate to deal with modern workplaces. He argues this is one of the reasons there has been so much economic uphieval.

He argues for an end to a focus on a rote work environment with strong fixed hours, routine work, and incentive plans. He also attacks carrot and stick management styles. In his view, there should be solid wages, more autonomy for workers, greater learning opportunities, and a focus on more than just profits.

Some of the changes in work which he describes are the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) created by Best Buy where scheduling becomes very flexible and Google's focus on giving its engineers 20% of their time to work on projects of their own design.

He also introduces us to psychological theories of motivation that are focused on what goes on inside people. He describes how optimal experiences and performance at work are not necessarily tied to incentives, but have a lot to do with the environment in the workplace. Two people he focuses on are Edward L. Deci and Mihaly Csikszentmihaly.

Sometimes, I think Daniel H. Pink draws too much from mainstream management theorists to make his point. Peter F. Drucker, Gary Hamel, and Jim Collins are all very standard business leaders. It seems like he is often making points using people who have a different management style than the one he is proposing.

I liked his list of recommended reading. I plan on reading Infinite Games A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James P. Carse. I have already read Talent Is Overrated What Really Separates World Class Performers From Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin.

This book would be good for people whose work is autonomous; artists, writers, programmers, and other creatives. I saw the book mentioned on Tobias Buckell's blog who is a science fiction writer. It also might be helpful for people who have to manage in an increasingly creative work environment.

Daily Thoughts 6/9/2010

Miniature painting of a scribe writing at a desk. Found on http://fromoldbooks.org

Daily Thoughts 6/9/2010

On the way home last night, I read some more of the book Drive by Daniel H. Pink. At this point, the author is talking about the concept of increasing autonomy in the work environment. He is describing how there are less people being put in management positions. He also talks about homesourcing where companies are increasingly hiring people to work at home for routine jobs like customer service and clerical work. Computers can be used from almost anywhere. Another concept in autonomy is the idea of the Results Only Work Environment where some companies like Best Buy allow very flexible work hours in return for a very goal oriented workplace. The final concept in autonomy is encouraging people to experiment for a certain amount of time in their jobs constantly. Google encourages their engineers to spend 20% of their time on their own projects to create new ideas.

I have to get ready for my upcoming class on Readers Advisory 101. I have four fiction titles I am supposed to read. It starts on June 28, 2010.

• Romance - The Viscount who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
• Mystery - Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron
• Speculative Fiction - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Action/Thriller/Suspense - Ice Station by Matt Reilly

The only book which I have already read from the list is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

An article from the New Yorker The Trouble With Recommending Books http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/06/the-trouble-with-recommending-books.html

　
Thinking about Web 2.0 in and if I should apply for a press pass... http://www.web2expo.com/webexny2010/?cmp=em-conf-web2ny-EM1-webny10ema5 Maybe, I can show that I am a journalist. It would be an interesting aim to get a third press pass because of my blog. I haven't really decided yet. It could be fun.

Just joined the Save Libraries Twibbon on Facebook http://twibbon.com/cause/Save-Libraries/facebook

This morning on the train, I finished reading Drive on the train. It was a very interesting book. Now, I have two books to review this weekend, Drive and Rex Riders.

Today was an interesting day. We had a call from an author who was interested in coming in. We also had an order meeting today where we discussed our different orders for the month. I have to look at MP3 players as a possible circulating item. With Playaways sometimes the devices don't come back with batteries. We have the Overdrive Media Console on most of our computer workstations.

I also spent some more time working with Bookletters. The page is starting to come together. We are also working on creating a patron requests form for our website. This will hopefully make our website more responsive for patrons.

Tomorrow, I will be looking at the Evance site which is used to manage an adult summer reading program. Hopefully, it should be interesting.