Pile On Motivation

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Category: Book review

  • MSN Encarta vs Wikipedia – Changing human motivation drivers

    “Drive” by Dan Pink uses this example very aptly to prove that historical economical principles that place rewards and punishment as a very important factor for motivation falls flat when it comes to “intrinsic motivation” as a major driver in the modern age open source frameworks for e.g. Wikipedia ,Apache etc. where contributors feel intrinsically motivated without feeling the need of money.

  • Evolution of the “human operating system” – “Drive” by Dan Pink

    Dan Pink’s Drive compares drivers of motivation in our society with the computer operating system which has the rules and protocols to run software on any hardware.

    Right from the Stone Age during the caveman times motivation used to be factors that solved our biological needs similar to animals.This has been termed as Motivation 1.0.

    As the human race evolved to the Industrial Age till very recently rewards and punishment have been major drivers of motivation.This has been termed as Motivation 2.0.

    In the modern conceptual age, the need is to upgrade the human operating system taking into account intrinsic motivation to do great work without money being the single major driver.

    Think of all Open source not for profit software in vogue now and we can realise the major need to upgrade from Motivation 2.0 to be relevant in the modern era.

  • Simon Sinek wonderful leadership advice

    Came across this wonderful link with the 5 piece leadership advice by the TEDD talk legend Simon Sinek.

    https://www.foodandwine.com/news/simon-sinek-welcome-conference

    Hope you guys enjoy!!

  • Don’t just take a stand , showcase parallel thinking

    Edward De Bono’s 6 thinking hats is a lesson in itself.The legendary author’s 6 Thinking Hats framework has shown beyond doubt how to get the best out of a brain storming session.

    Just taking a stand and opposing contrary ideas , no longer works in the modern era.Parallel thinking by means of use of the 6 thinking hats framework helps cover all scenarios to come to a fruitful conclusion avoiding conflicts..

    The 6 thinking hats and meaning has been provided as follows to be used on a turn by turn basis..

    Black Hat – Focus on Possible dangers, critical points

    Yellow Hat – Focuses on benefits and values

    Green Hat – For creativity and new ideas

    Red Hat – Permission to our forward emotions , feelings , intuitions

    Blue Hat – For better organising

    White Hat – Focus on information

  • Perception vs Logic – Which dominates?

    In the book “The Free Mind” , Ed De Bono talks about perception as the dominant force behind influencing our thoughts.

    The Harvard stalwart David Perkins goes the distance in saying that 90% of errors made by us in thoughts is due to perceptions and the rest due to logic.

    This goes a long way in proving that school education that teaches us to analyse and use logic falls flat in most practical scenarios wherein a false judgement is made due to perception aka the limbic Brain.

    This makes is necessary to make thinking a central focus of all modern day educational curriculum.

  • “The Free Mind” by De Bono – Funny fact about the Chinese

    This fantastic book by Edward De Bono makes a mention of the fact that the Chinese because of small eyes tend to have near sighted ness and hence a majority of them use spectacles.

    Since the invention of spectacles dates back to only as late as the 14th century hence the author mentions that majority of plain & ordinary looking girls would have got married to such innocent Chinese because of their near sighted ness.

    This explains the high Chinese population 😀😅

  • 7 step framework for providing “guidance” to teams

    For bosses to provide proper guidance to their teams , the following 7 step continuously evolving framework has been mentioned by Kim Scott in “Radical Candor”.

     

    Listen————–>

    <————–  Learn                                                                      Clarify   —–>

    < ————    Execute                                                                                         Debate —–>

    <——       Persuade                           <————   Decide

     

     

  • “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott – Takeaway on strengthening social bonds

    Kim Scott makes a mention that a warm hug for 6 seconds can release Serotonin & Oxytocin (leadership and love hormone respectively) in our bodies.

    This is the pre-requisite for long lasting relationships and formation of true social bonds.

  • Plot of “Care Personally” v/s “Challenge Directly” – “Dimensions of Guidance”

    As mentioned by Kim Scott in “Radical Candor” , guidance provided by our bosses can be classified into the following types based on the intent.

    Based on the two components of Radical Candor i.e. 1) Care personally & 2) Challenge Directly guidance provided by bosses to sub-ordinates can be classified into the following categories:

    Radical Candor  –  High on Care Personally and High on Challenge Directly

    Obnoxious Aggression   –  Low on Care Personally and High on Challenge Directly

    Ruinous Empathy    –  High on Care Personally and Low on Challenge Directly

    Manipulative Insincerity    –  Low on Care Personally and Low on Challenge Directly

    1st category being the most desirable and 4th the least.

     

     

  • Components of “Radical Candor” – The Kim Scott way

    Kim Scott in her book “Radical Candor” has coined this very term very thoughtfully.

    Applied to modern day bosses , there are two components that elaborately explains “Radical Candor” as the way forward for communication to drive high performance.

    1. Care Personally – Deep care for direct reports of bosses ensure flow of trust , needed for high performance  teams.
    2. Challenge directly – The respect and relationship between boss and direct reports should encourage constructive criticism , acceptance of tough challenges in a healthy manner without any ill will.For this again the environment should be one involving high amount of trust.

    Easier said than done though..