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Loy Machedo's Book Review - Drive by Daniel Pink

295 views · Published 11 June 2013 · 7:05 · Indexed 14 November 2026

Channel: Loy Machedo · 2013 · Education

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In my rather short-lived corporate career, I've been fortunate enough to work directly under the owners of medium scale company's. And I've had the privilege of learning and studying what they did to improve productive, performance and profits of the corporations they were running.

One of the biggest challenges almost all of them faced was this - motivating employees to work harder, faster, smarter and better. And I've seen every strategy known to man being applied - from offering incentives, bonuses, improved package deals, to strange add-ons like Birthday celebrations, Christmas or New Year Gifts to even Threats and Mental Pressure being applied to the point of having them break down and cry.

Daniel Pink's book explores, explains and enumerates the evolution of Motivation through the various phases and comes out with what he calls Motivation 3.0.
Motivation 1.0 being Eating, Sleeping and Procreating or the Basics Acts of Survival.
Motivation 2.0 being the Carrot & Stick Approach
And Motivation 3.0 being
Autonomy: People want to have control over their work,
Mastery: People want to get better at what they do,
Purpose: People want to be part of something that is bigger than they are.

But herein lies a big question - Is Pink's Model Feasible?

Before I answer that question, let me give you a short introduction of Mr. Pink.
Pink graduated from Bexley High School in Bexley, Ohio, and earned a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University, where he was a Truman Scholar and a Phi Beta Kappa. He received a law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of The Yale Law & Policy Review. Then he worked as an aide to Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and from 1995 to 1997 he was chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore. He is a very successful American author who has written five books about business, work and management.

So he has lived a rather comfortable life - or at least that is my assumption. Personally, I do not see someone who is the Script writer for Al Gore having to work in the difficult conditions with the minimum pay scale that normal folks have to go through or suffering lack of opportunities and ending up in the unemployment line.

So why am I bring this up?
Simply because when you are talking about human beings who need money to pay their day-to-day bills, to take care of the loved ones and provide for their necessities - Money does become a driving force. And given a choice between Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose on one side versus Good Money on the other side - I doubt the majority of the needy would choose the former. You see, the world where the majority come from 'Leaving a Legacy' like how Stephen Covey put it, does not rank high on the list, especially when surviving through the day seems impossible.

The second issue which I have with Pink is this.
He is a Political Writer. He is very good with words and can really rally up people with his craft of choosing the right words, to be said at the right time and right place. Using terms like Humanistic Psychology, Friedman-Rosenman "Type A" behavior, Type I behavior, Type X behavior, Motivation 3.0 and Titanic Battles can really impress people. However, he uses them intelligently to camouflage the short-comings that none of the stated techniques have been proven (other than 2 companies - Google and Atlassian). So then the question arises, is this the case of Confirmation Bias?

Bottom Line
This book came out during the bad phase of the Recession where Greed, Profits, Banking, Bankruptcy and Cold Corporate Commissions were the talk of the town. It gave people hope and a belief system that we could work for something beyond the need and greed of money. However, whatever said and done - Money does have the last say in the matter. And let us also not forget, there are quite a number of people who also - even when offered everything, just do not have the drive, desire or determination to work and put their heart into work. So what can you do there?

Moment of Truth
Motivation, Drive and Intrinsic Behavior is a rather complex subject that cannot be covered by one single book. Pink would have to go beyond just a positive and hopeful pitch to convince economists, psychologists, entrepreneurs, businessmen and the Corporate world. In as much as the book was thoroughly enjoyable read, in the end the question comes down to practicality and realism. I doubt any of the owners I worked for would be convinced to adopt the strategy Pink has suggested. Unless Pink has fool proof data to back his claim - his concept of drive will just remain a total stand-still.

Overall Rating 6 out of 10.

PS - Watch his TED Talk. I think that would be a total and complete replacement to his book.

Loy Machedo
loymachedo.com

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