Without any explicit rewards like fruit juice, the monkeys learned to solve the puzzle of their own volition. But strangely, the monkeys began playing with the puzzles independently, with determination and what looked like enjoyment. They placed the puzzles in the monkey cages to habituate them to the puzzle in preparation for the real studies that would happen two weeks later. His team had created a mechanical puzzle for rhesus monkeys to complete. This idea was borne out in numerous animal studies and also became the model for human management in the workplace.īut in 1949, Harry Harlow, a professor of psychology, discovered a deviation from this standard reward model. If you don’t reward a behavior, it extinguishes over time. The foundation of this model was that if you give a reward to someone after a behavior, you encourage that behavior to happen again. In the 1940s, operant conditioning was the standard model of behavior. It doesn’t explain why unpaid volunteers.ĭrive begins with a research study. The model of extrinsic rewards also doesn’t explain some trends, like people leaving well-paying jobs for lower-paying jobs they enjoy more.

Rewards aren’t enduring - people get used to them, and if you ever take them away, they’ll stop the behavior.

Rewards decrease internal motivation to do a good job.

Rewards encourage people to cheat, think short-term, and exploit the incentive system.

Rewards decrease creativity and narrow focus.

But research suggests extrinsic rewards harm all of these qualities: The new economy requires thinking skills - creativity, collaboration, long-term thinking. These extrinsic (or external) rewards work well for routine tasks.īut in the new information economy, this model is now outdated. Pay a person more per widget they make, and that person will crank out more widgets. Because human work in factories was easy to measure, it was easy to see how work policies changed productivity. This system worked well in the era of industrialization.

Within management, this gave rise to the “carrots and sticks” model - reward the behavior that you want, and punish the behavior you don’t want. On a higher level, we also seek reward and avoid punishment.

Starting with the basics: humans, like any other animal, have a foundational desire to survive. Why do people do what they do? What drives behavior? Understanding this is important for guiding your own behavior to achieve your goals, and driving other people’s behavior to meet the organization’s goals. 1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Drive

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