After recently trying to keep a bottle of white wine cold in a New York City hotel room, only to have it repeatedly removed from the mini fridge by the housekeeping staff, I can actually relate to Umberto Eco’s problem of traveling with a perishable salmon in How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays.

Eco bought a smoked salmon in Stockholm, but had to travel on to London before heading home to Italy. This battle to keep the salmon cold in the hotel room’s fridge admist a huge amount of gourmet goodies, which he removed and emptied into a dresser drawer, went on back and forth for a couple of days…

“The next day at 4 p.m., the salmon was back on the desk, and it was emanating a suspect odor. The bar was crammed with bottles large and small, and the four drawers of the dresser suggested the back room of a speakeasy at the height of Prohibition.”

“The next morning I went down to sign the bill. It was astronomical. It indicated that in two and a half days I had consumer several hectoliters of Veuve Clicquot, ten liters of various whiskeys, including some very rare single malts, eight liters of gin, twenty-five liters of mineral water (both Perrier and Evian, plus some bottles of San Pellegrino), [and] enough fruit juice to protect from scurvy all of the children in UNICEF’s care…”

All to no avail since the salmon quickly became inedible. Alas.

How about you… Any funny travel stories to share? When traveling with unique limitations?

Probably not as unique as a salmon.

“Without sovereignty over our time, it’s nearly impossible to have autonomy over our lives.” – Daniel Pink

I recently finished reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us(*), by Daniel H. Pink, and I couldn’t recommend it more highly! It’s a well written, entertaining book about a new theory of motivation based largely on autonomy. It’s the kind of book that will truly changed how you think.

Overview

Drive demonstrates that carrots and sticks merely create compliance while autonomy, mastery, and purpose create engagement. The statistics showing the lack of engagement of American workers are staggering. This benefits no one – not the American economy, not companies, not executives, and most of all not the employees.

Here is Dan’s Twitter-sized Summary of Drive: ”Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery, and purpose.”

I’m sure you can look back to your own work or educational experiences to remember a time where you were required to comply under circumstances where the when, where, and how of the job or project were determined for you without regard for any other factors. How did it feel at the time? What are your enduring memories of it? How was your level of engagement?

The carrot and stick approach to motivation is still amazingly ingrained in our psyches even despite our own personal experiences and beliefs that there’s more to our work than money. Hearing that the scientific evidence shows that this approach actually does more harm in most situations that it does good, especially “when the task call[s] for even rudimentary cognitive skill” (emphasis mine) was paradigm shifting for me. In the book, Dan outlines specific examples establishing each of the following, which he calls the 7 deadly flaws with carrots & sticks:

1. “They can extinguish intrinsic motivation
2. They can diminish performance
3. They can crush creativity
4. They can crowd out good behavior
5. They can encourage cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
6. They can become addictive
7. They can foster short term thinking”

Underlying Premises Exposed

It becomes crystal clear after reading about the scientific studies Dan cites that the business world has gotten the science of motivation dead wrong, but why? The underlying premises for supporting the extensive use of carrot and stick incentives must be

• The belief that an employee won’t work effectively and efficiently unless the method is dictated and he is rewarded to work or punished for not working, and
• The belief that rewards and punishments will always work.

In other word, a person’s default state is passive and unengaged, and human beings can be endlessly manipulated to achieve a result (a.k.a everyone has a price). These are pretty glum assessments of human character, and setting such low expectations for employees only serves to reinforce their behavior. Autonomy requires trust and high regard for your employee’s character.

Instead, managers sacrifice long term engagement and motivation through autonomy short term compliance by resorting to using supremely uncreative carrot and stick approach to managing employees.

Motivation Applied

I heard Dan speak recently and he said that his goal is to write books that answer big questions, but that also help people act on the information in their own lives. Many people write big, important books, but without applying the information to situations in the real world, it’s just academic. Dan dedicated the last section of the book to applying this information in both a business and a personal context. He calls it ‘The Type I Toolkit.’ It’s a great first step and toward moving his ideas from theory to practice.

Once you see motivation and incentives through this lens, it’s hard not to see issues ripe for change popping up through work and everyday life. Below are a few of my recent streams-of-thought:

• I wonder whether the traditional incentive structure of most sales or professional services organizations (base pay with commission) really encourages increased sales performance? Or does that incentive only influence a portion of a sales force?
• I also think that how an individual executive comes down on these underlying premises will undoubtedly influence the way they do business, the projects they champion, and their ability to step up and take meaningful business risks (since risk require a certain amount of trust). Positioning an organization for change toward a more autonomous workforce (and greater productivity) would have to address these underlying premises explicitly since carrots and sticks are such ingrained modes of motivation.
• It’s also made me look back to think about situations where I may have felt less motivation for an activity specifically because it’s been the subject of an if-then reward.
• Distilling your purpose and contribution to the world down to one sentence is really hard, but that’s the point. I don’t have my sentence yet!?#! Check out Dan’s blog post called Two Simple Questions that Can Change Your Life in 2010 and watch the video to see what I mean!

Also, if Dan is heading to your part of the country on his book tour, I highly recommend that you go see him speak. Not surprisingly, he’s a passionate and engaged speaker, but he’s also very funny and a truly great storyteller!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post… It’s a little different than our usual fare!

Also, tell us what motivates you? Let us know your sentence if you’re up for sharing it.

*Above link is an Amazon Affiliate link. If you choose to buy the book via this link, I may make a few bucks!

“The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead.”— Clarence S. Day, 1928

That I love books is no shocking revelation for anyone who’s been a regular visitor here…  I write about books a lot, and I’ve even set a reading goal for the end of the year.  But today I’ve decided not to go into specifics about my recent reads (Tribes and Free – there’s plenty of commentary on these two!)… Instead I’ll just share with you some great things I’ve found online about books!

I’ve been excited to find many online who are more obsessed with books, than I am. For example, Laura writes 52 Books: A Year Long Reading Project. It’s not her first year of this project either! For anyone who thinks a book a week is impossible, check this out!

Change is Afoot

The book world is clearly influx right now with the landscape changing  because of digital readers, self-publishing, eBooks, online digital libraries via Google Books (see also the Google Library Project) or via ReadPrint.com… I’m excited to see where the industry is headed and imagine that it will end up meaning good things for consumers!

Here’s a great list of book resources from Elysa Rice at GenPink. One resource she mentions is GoodReads, which is one I’m still relatively new at using, but I love the idea! Check out my GoodReads profile and let’s connect there.

Something a Little Different

“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

For something a little different, look at these amazing book installations on Black*Eiffel by Jan Reymonds and Alicia Martin. They’re truly breathtaking.  I’d never seen anything like them before these posts, but they make me wonder if my library is large enough to create one…

I was also inspired by the idea of a Community Bookcase, featured on decor8.  I wonder if it would work in Dallas… or anywhere other than Europe for that matter!

~

I hope you enjoyed the detour from my normal book reviews.  I’d love to hear your thoughts below…

I’m rarely at a loss for words, as those who know me personally can attest, but I’ve been at a loss for how to describe my hopes for this site.  When I was called upon to introduce myself at Pam’s workshop here in Dallas, I punted. I didn’t talk about this site much at all, when it’s what  really needed to be discussed. I spoke about the things I had figured out. I spoke about the work I’m doing with Paper & Chocolate, not my hopes for Cultivated Living.

I remember vividly the first time after passing the Texas bar exam that someone asked me what I did for a living. It was monumental and nerve wracking, but it was also simple and clear.  “I’m a lawyer.” There’s nothing simple and clear about this explanation.  It’s my avocation, and I don’t have it figured all out. I did know, however, that if I waited until I had it all figured out, I’d never do it!  So it’s a work in progress…

While I wasn’t quite prepared to talk about it then, the workshop was the push I needed to start talking about it. There’s plenty more that I learned from reading Escape from Cubicle Nation and attending the workshop, but this has made a huge difference.  Thanks, Pam!

The Books

I’m late in posting my book for last week, but it’s worth the wait! Plus, there’s two instead of just one.

Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur (*), by author and blogger Pamela Slim, and The E Myth Revisited – Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About it (*), by Michael Gerber (recommended by Pam).

Escape from Cubicle Nation is a roadmap to becoming a thriving entrepreneur, and The E Myth discusses the connection between who you are and how you run your business. I highly recommend both of these books.

About Pam

“[I]n essence, what our life is consists [of] experiences related to work, to keeping things we already have from falling apart, and to whatever else we do in our free time. It is within these parameters that life unfolds, and it is how we choose what we do, and how we approach it, that will determine whether the sum of our days adds up to a formless blur, or to something resembling a work of art.” (emphasis added)

The Book: Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (Masterminds Series)(*), by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Summary: “Part psychology study and part self-help book, Finding Flow is a prescriptive guide that helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. The key, according to Csikszentmihalyi is to challenge ourselves with tasks that require a high degree of skill and commitment.  Instead of watching television, play the piano; transform a routine task with a different approach.  In short, learn the joy of complete engagement.”  (inside cover, front flap)

My Thoughts

I’m not sure where to start…  Saying I loved this book might be an understatement. I had a hard time putting it down and found myself up late a number of nights reading it.  Finding Flow changed the way I think about how I spend my leisure time dramatically.  It made me realize that I’d come to believe (somewhat unconsciously) that spending my leisure time in passive pursuits would make me feel more rested and centered, when in actuality that’s not what my experience has shown.

Finding Flow is the kind of non-fiction I love to read – informative and actionable!  It’s easy to make real changes in your life based on the overarching idea of increasing the number of flow experiences by increasing the amount of active v. passive leisure activities you pursue.

The metaphor of “flow” is one that many people have used to describe the sense of effortless action they feel in moments that stand out as the best in their lives. Athletes refer to it as “being in the zone,” religious mystics as being in in “ecstasy,” artists and musicians as aesthetic rapture. Athletes, mystics, and artists do very different things when they reach flow, yet their descriptions of the experience are remarkably similar.

None of this is hard to do since it simply means doing more of what you love. How’s that for fun personal development!  After reading this book, I’ve found myself easily engrossed in active lesiure – writing, exploring new places in Dallas, getting my hands dirty in the yard, reading – leaving my DVR list to grow alone.  I’m sure that I’ll go back to spending some time watching TV, but I’m really not missing it much at all.