On the way back from a hospital visit today I finished listening to the audio version of Daniel’s Pink’s bestseller, Drive. I haven’t quite processed it yet, but here is a summary quote about the book from the author web site:

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He demonstrates that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the twentieth century, that’s precisely the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. In Drive, he examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action. Along the way, he takes us to companies that are enlisting new approaches to motivation and introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are pointing a bold way forward.

I found much agreement with the insights from the book, and I will have to chew on those for a while, but I have a suspicion—at that’s all it is at this point—that Pink will write a new book about these matters in a few years that either changes the word “autonomy” or adds a fourth dimension about “community” or some synonym thereof.

For those interested, here is Mr. Pink’s 2009 TED talk on the subject: