Quotes from Daniel H. Pink

In an age of abundance, appealing only to rational, logical, and functional needs is woefully insufficient. Engineers must figure out how to get things to work. But if those things are not also pleasing to the eye or compelling to the soul, few will buy them. There are too many other options.

W]e have three innate psychological needs, competence, autonomy, and relatedness. When those needs are satisfied, we're motivated, productive, and happy. When they're thwarted, our motivation, productivity, and happiness plummet.

listen without listening for anything.

Indeed, just consider the very notion of empowerment. It presumes that the organization has the power and benevolently ladles some of it into the waiting bowls of grateful employees. But that's not autonomy. That's just a slightly more civilized form of control.

Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier. The paradox of prosperity is that while living standards have risen steadily decade after decade, personal, family, and life satisfaction haven't budged. That's why more people—liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it—are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning.

later start time high school graduation rates increased by more than 11 percent

But the teacher works to convince his class to part with resources—time, attention, effort—and if they do, they will be better off when the term ends than they were when it began.

Chapter 6 will explore purpose, our yearning to contribute and to be part of something larger than ourselves.

The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive—and autonomy can be the antidote." TOM KELLEY General Manager, IDEO

1) Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives (2) Mastery—the urge to make progress and get better at something that matters (3) Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Autonomy, as they see it, is different from independence. It's not the rugged, go-it-alone, rely-on-nobody individualism of the American cowboy. It means acting with choice—which means we can be both autonomous and happily interdependent with others.

not looking at the student or the patient as a pawn on a chessboard but as a full participant in the game.

Harvard Business School's Teresa Amabile have found that external rewards and punishments—both carrots and sticks—can work nicely for algorithmic tasks. But they can be devastating for heuristic ones.

Autonomy, as they see it, is different from independence. It's not the rugged, go-it-alone, rely-on-nobody individualism of the American cowboy. It means acting with choice—which means we can be both autonomous and happily interdependent with others. And while the idea of independence has national and political reverberations, autonomy appears to be a human concept rather than a western one.

Author and University of Houston professor Brené Brown offers a wonderful definition of "midlife." She says it's the period "when the Universe grabs your shoulders and tells you 'I'm not f—ing around, use the gifts you were given.

As they explained, "Whereas the importance of working harder is easily apprehended, the importance of working longer without switching objectives may be less perceptible . . . in every field, grit may be as essential as talent to high accomplishment."14

Positive affect—language revealing that tweeters felt active, engaged, and hopeful—generally rose in the morning, plummeted in the afternoon, and climbed back up again in the early evening.

motivators"—things like enjoyment of the work itself, genuine achievement, and personal growth.

One of the most effective ways of moving others is to uncover challenges they may not know they have.

Kemampuan terbaik saya adalah ketika saya tidak bisa melakukan sesuatu. Saya telah mengembangkan kemampuan untuk merasa kuat dan percaya diri dalam situasi-situasi ini. Saya merasa bebas untuk bergerak, mendengarkan nurani saya, belajar, bertindak, bahkan jika itu berarti saya akan melakukan kesalahan. Jika Anda menginginkan hidup yang kreatif, lakukan apa yang tidak bisa Anda lakukan dan resapi keindahan dari kesahalan-kesalahan yang Anda buat.

self-determination theory." Many theories of behavior pivot around a particular human tendency: We're keen responders to positive and negative reinforcements, or zippy calculators of our self-interest, or lumpy duffel bags of psychosexual conflicts.

SDT, by contrast, begins with a notion of universal human needs. It argues that we have three innate psychological needs—competence, autonomy, and relatedness.

A]n important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day.

Identifying problems as a way to move others takes two