Book Titles

Routine work can be outsourced or automated: artistic, empathic, nonroutine work generally cannot.

…certain kinds of extrinsic rewards on top of inherently interesting tasks can often dampen motivation and diminish performance.

As organizations flatten, companies need people who are self-motivated.

Routine, not-so-interesting jobs require direction; non-routine, more interesting work depends on self-direction.

…many more business models are organizing what we do – because we’re intrinsically motivated purpose maximizers, not only extrinsically motivated profit maximizers.

…economists are finally realizing that we’re full-fledged human beings, not single-minded economic robots.

…it’s hard to reconcile with much of what we actually do at work – because for growing numbers of people, work is often creative, interesting, and self-directed rather than unrelentingly routine, boring, and other-directed.

…the starting point for any discussion of motivation in the workplace is a simple fact of life: People have to earn a living.

…instead of restraining negative behavior, rewards and punishments can often set it loose and give rise to cheating, addiction, and dangerously myopic thinking.

…rewards can perform a weird sort of behavioral alchemy: They can transform an interesting task into a drudge. They can turn play into work.