Quotes from Daniel H. Pink

Rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus. That's helpful when there's a clear path to a solution. They help us stare ahead and race faster. But "if-then" motivators are terrible for challenges like the candle problem. As this experiment shows, the rewards narrowed people's focus and blinkered the wide view that might have allowed them to see new uses for old objects.

The purpose of a pitch isn't necessarily to move others immediately to adopt your idea. The purpose is to offer something so compelling that it begins a conversation, brings the other person in as a participant, and eventually arrives at an outcome that appeals to both of you. In a world where buyers have ample information and an array of choices, the pitch is often the first word, but it's rarely the last.

Power can move you off the proper position on the dial and scramble the signals you receive, distorting clear messages and obscuring more subtle ones.

One thirty-three-year-old South African woman spoke for many when she wrote: I regret not having the courage to be more bold earlier in my career and caring too much what other people thought of me.

Best Medicine."30 "If laughing is so good," Kataria says he thought to himself, "why not start a laughter club?" (Roughly one-fourth of the good doctor's sentences seem to include some variation of the "Why not?" formulation.)

The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.

Nowadays, everyone—whether we're the head of an organization or its freshest hire—faces a torrent of information. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the typical American hears or reads more than one hundred thousand words every day.

The guy who invented the wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius." —SID CAESAR

Carry a notebook and write down examples of good and poor design. After a week, you'll begin to realize that nearly everything is the product of a design decision.

Asking "Why?" can lead to understanding. Asking "Why not?" can lead to breakthroughs.

Do what you can't and experience the beauty of the mistakes you make.

The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas.

The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.