Give people creative environments and they will blossom, says Kimara Sharpe

If you want to know what motivates your staff then Drive is for you. Carrots and sticks are embedded within our culture. Drive looks at motivation across the ages and introduces the concept of “Motivation 1.0” (early humans, struggling for survival); “2.0” (rewards and punishments, where we are now); and “3.0” (where we need to be).

Motivation 3.0 is recognising that we respond very positively to a learning, creative environment where we work for a better world.

The author gives many examples of motivation 3.0 where humans work purely for creative pleasure. We all know the examples - the invention of post-it notes, Gmail and Google. Wikipedia also fits into this category. Pink defines three elements of true motivation - autonomy (directing our own lives), mastery (getting better and better) and purpose (having meaning). The book is full of real life examples of where traditional motivation (carrot and stick) decreases performance and a creative environment enhances performance.

In today’s UK, where employees are being encouraged to be more involved in their own businesses, including social enterprise, this is an essential read for leaders who want to work innovatively and improve performance and productivity as well as want to make a difference to society as a whole. One-third of the book is a toolkit for implementation of motivation 3.0 and six pages are devoted to a summary. Drive is engaging and inspirational, an essential read for today’s go-ahead leaders and managers.

Kimara Sharpe is director of community engagement and primary care at NHS Dudley.

Topics