Daniel H. Pink is the author of four provocative bestselling books about the changing world of work. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and their three children.
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Unless you’re a hermit in a cave somewhere (and if so, how are you reading this blog?), you’re probably in a position to influence someone in your circle – children, a significant other, your co-workers, your boss – several times a day. Lately I’ve been digging into this broad question of how of we move [...]
Cornell professor Karl Pillemer admits he’s an advice junkie. Yet even amid the groaning self-help shelves at his local bookstore, he felt something was missing. As he asks in 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans (Amazon, BN.com, IndieBound), “Why, if we have so many professional advice givers, are so many people [...]
One day last fall, Marie-Dominique Bonardi, a professor of public relations at Sorbonne University, posed a problem to PinkBlog readers: A group of smokers at a commuter train station in France takes over one car each day, “and spends the whole journey smoking and preventing other people from using the wagon.” When other commuters do [...]
Dedicated readers know that I’ve written a fair bit on how contingent rewards, including money, can go awry in all sorts of ways — resulting in poorer performance, diminished creativity, reduced interest in tasks that were once intrinsically interesting, and so on. But can the very idea of money also affect our behavior? In an [...]
Jim Collins — the author of the legendary Good to Great and co-author of the new and equally compelling Great by Choice– has an insightful 3-minute Big Think video describing three ways organizations demotivate their employees. Watch it below or view it on Big Think. Then send a copy to your boss. ** BREAKING NEWS: [...]
France’s state-owned railway is facing a vexing problem and — mon Dieu! — it’s looking for advice from Pink Blog readers. Here’s the le scoop: Earlier this month, I received an email from Marie-Dominique Bonardi, who’d recently finished reading Drive. She wrote: I am a professor at Sorbonne University, I teach public relations. I also have [...]
At the heart of most organizations is a disconnect. Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer have shown that making progress on meaningful work is the single most motivating aspect of any job. But . . . many people don’t know what kind of progress they’re making – because their main source of workplace feedback comes only [...]
A: This popular game show presents an elegant environment for studying the effects of gender on competition. Q: What is Jeopardy? Scores of studies have examined the differences between men and women when it comes to competition, but a recent paper called “Girls will be Girls – Especially among Boys” (pdf) takes a clever approach [...]
Sometimes when I’m stuck on a course of action, I use two techniques to help me decide. One is what I call the “90-year-old me Test.” I imagine I’m 90 and looking back at the decision before. What will I want to have done in this situation? In most cases, the 90-year-old me wants today’s [...]
Here’s a tip for rounding out your summer reading. Pick up a copy of The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. The book, which pubs today, is one of the best business books I’ve read in many years. (Buy it at Amazon, BN, or 8CR). The authors — Harvard B-school professor Teresa [...]
