Dan Pink presents thoughts on how to motivate people (H/T Political Calculations).
Houston's Clear Thinkers
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Is Mr. Pink’s conclusion that you can successfully motivate people in ways other than monetarily or that thinking about profit while simultaneously trying to win a “thinking” prize is counterproductive? I think both things are true and it would be interesting if researchers could find a way to distinguish them. It would also be interesting to find out if adding a risk of loss to the possibility of a reward stimulated creativity more or less than a potential reward only.
As to finding non-monetary ways to motivate and reward people, it would be interesting if researchers would study this in the context of gender differences as to both the most effective methods used to motivate the genders and whether the prevailing compensation systems had an effect upon the choice of industries in which the genders predominantly choose to work. Such a study, however, might be a bit too potentially explosive for academics who are always looking for funding to politically motivated entities.
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