Tag Archives: intrinsic motivation

Your Purpose Must Be About You

Posted on May 19, 2014 by John Hunter

Guest post by Jurgen Appelo I’m a writer. It’s the one thing that I intend to do for the rest of my life. That means, when I focus on writing, I cannot focus on knitting. Somebody else will have to do the knitting, so I can focus on the writing. And maybe later, I can trade my wonderful book for someone’s beautiful sweater. This concept applies to all other professionals too. Everyone is entangled in a web of economic dependencies, … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Motivation, Rewards, Performance Appraisals and Your Career

Posted on April 12, 2012 by John Hunter

In this interview Dan Pink again makes some great points relating to psychology, managing people and managing your career. Q. What kinds of programs can managers and companies put into place to motivate their workforce? Assuming companies are paying people fairly, they should do what they can to foster autonomy, mastery, and purpose. One of my favorite specific ideas is this: The Australian company Atlassian conducts what they call “FedEx Days” in which people work on anything they want for … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Performance Appraisal, Psychology, Respect | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

You’ve Got to Find What You Love

Posted on October 5, 2011 by John Hunter

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Deming, Education, Fun, Innovation, Psychology, quote | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Build an Environment Where Intrinsic Motivation Flourishes

Posted on August 8, 2010 by John Hunter

50 years after Douglas McGregor’s classic, The Human Side of Enterprise, too many managers still have not learned that using extrinsic motivation is not an effective way to manage complex human systems (organizations). The issue is important to me because their is a huge amount of poor management based on this thinking (focused on how people need to be fixed/motivated) instead of fixing what management really needs to fix. You can succeed as a manager, and progress in your career, … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Deming, Management, Process improvement, Psychology, quote, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow

Posted on February 24, 2010 by John Hunter

“After a certain basic point, which translates, more or less, to just a few thousand dollars above the minimum poverty level, increases in material well being don’t see to affect how happy people are.” The speech includes, the first purpose of incorporation at Sony: To establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society, and work to their heart’s content. Excellent books by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow: The Psychology … Continue reading →

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