The Seven Deadly Flaws of Carrots and Sticks

Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is fantastic and I will be blogging on it if I get the chance. One of his points is that extrinsic motivators often back-fire and decrease commitment to a task. We shouldn’t dismiss extrinsic motivation altogether, but it needs to be very secondary and used right. The primary way to motivate is create the conditions that foster intrinsic motivation–that tap the inherent worth of the task. Which usually means simply making sure not to get in the way of how people are naturally motivated.

Extrinsic motivation is most relevant when a task is routine. But when it comes to creative tasks and the typical nonroutine tasks of the knowledge worker, extrinsic motivation can decrease not only commitment to the task, but also the original and creative thought that is necessary to finding your way.

Here are the seven deadly flaws of the “carrot and stick” approach (extrinsic motivation) that he discusses in chapter 2:

  1. They can extinguish intrinsic motivation
  2. They can diminish performance
  3. They can crush creativity
  4. They can crowd out good behavior
  5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
  6. They can become addictive
  7. They can foster short-term thinking

Again, his point is not that extrinsic motivation is always bad, but that it can be.

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April 12, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 4 Comments 

Comments

4 Responses to “The Seven Deadly Flaws of Carrots and Sticks”

  1. Best Links of the Week « Modern Pensées on April 22nd, 2010 6:24 am

    [...] Perman has a nice article on how not to motivate people in the [...]

  2. Brian Barela on April 23rd, 2010 12:03 am

    have the book w me here on vacation. hoping to get to it tomorrow!

    i’ve seen this over and over when trying to motivate college students (i direct a campus crusade ministry at chico state in northern california).

    recently i’ve offered financial incentives, but most of my students turn them down because they really value our ministry and enjoy helping.

    extrinsic motivation is great for students who are on the fence–they need something external to get them over the friction of doing something they are not used to.

    w my leaders i motivate them from biblical vision and leadership development–although this can be harder it’s certainly the right fit for them.

  3. Bert on August 24th, 2010 3:43 pm

    Is point #1 supposed to be:

    1.They can extinguish INtrinsic motivation?

  4. Matt on August 24th, 2010 4:25 pm

    Yes–thanks. Fixed now.

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