Before Holy Mountain

  Originally posted as a Facebook Note June 28, 2011. Part 3 of Pink's book is a grab bag of ideas for individuals, institutions, parents and educators for instituting his findings about motivation. It's a lot to think about. Most of it is likely to be inapplicable to any one reader, but anyone ought to find at least a few ideas that are worth thinking about.  Where I am now is thinking about how these might practically plug into my day-to-day teaching. My overall sense is that things are going pretty well, could be better, could be a lot worse. I don't want to try something radical that results in crashing and burning.  Here are three ideas that occur off the top of my head.  1. Better first days. The 24 worst days of my 24-year teaching career have certainly been the first days of the year. The next 24 worst would be the first days of the spring semester. I simply struggle without a text to discuss. It wouldn't be bad to talk about motivation and purpose. Yes, we a...

  Originally posted as a Facebook Note June 13, 2011.             Part 2 of Drive describes three core motivations that business managers often overlook—autonomy, mastery of a skill, and a sense of higher purpose—and discusses cases of successful businesses that have incorporated them into their management practices. That all of his examples come from fields dominated by what Robert Reich calls “knowledge workers” suggest that these accomplishments will be difficult to translate into most employment settings. That is, however, the problem of visionary business owners and managers.               My challenge is to apply them to my motivational areas: my students, my own children, and myself. Here, I think, Pink’s ideas are suggestive and intriguing, but don’t (yet) provide clear directional lines.             ...

  Originally published as a Facebook Note May 31, 2011. A group of us at Coe are reading and commenting on Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink. Malcolm Gladwell calls is "provocative and fascinating," and so it is. Here's what the first three chapters provoked from me: Pink makes two claims which occur side-by-side in the first part of his book. The first is that traditional material incentives (pay, prizes, grades) are not as effective as conventional wisdom would have it. For many people, intrinsic incentives, such as personal interest and connection with others, are more effective. The second claim is that however individuals happen to be motivated, intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic motivation at fostering creative problem-solving, productivity and job satisfaction. Employers would do well to hire people who are intrinsically-motivated, and those of us who are more extrinsically-motivated would do well to work on developin...