Book Titles

…’if-then’ motivators that are the staple of most businesses often stifle, rather than stir, creative thinking.

By neglecting the ingredients of genuine motivation – autonomy, mastery, and purpose – they limit what each of us can achieve.

When used improperly, extrinsic motivators can have another unintended collateral consequence: They can give us more of what we don’t want.

…what science is revealing is that carrots and sticks can promote bad behavior, create addiction, and encourage short-term thinking at the expense of the long view.

Goals work. The academic literature shows that by helping us tune out distractions, goals can get us to try harder, work longer, and achieve more.

Goals that people set for themselves and that are devoted to attaining master are usually healthy. But goals imposed by others… can sometimes have dangerous side effects.

Like all extrinsic motivators, goals narrow our focus. That’s one reason they can be effective; they concentrate the mind. But as we’ve seen, a narrowed focus exacts a cost.

For complex or conceptual tasks, offering a reward can blinker the wide-ranging thinking necessary to come up with an innovative solution.

…when an extrinsic goal is paramount… its presence can restrict our view of the broader dimensions of our behavior.

The problem with making an extrinsic reward the only destination that matters is that some people will choose the quickest route there, even if it means taking the low road.