I am about halfway through Daniel Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. His basic premise is that there are three elements of true motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. According to Pink our basic nature is to be curious and self-directed. This doesn't mean we are independent, but rather it means being able to make our own choices about our time. As pink points out, without sovereignty over our own time, we can't have autonomy over our own lives. This really resonated with me as I thought about my own response when I'm in an environment where I feel constrained. My stress level increases, my productivity slows, and my desire to work on things that I was initially passionate about drops. Conversely, when I'm in an environment where my ideas are encouraged and sought out and I'm given space and time to develop them, I feel ownership over them - a deep desire to see them through and give them my all.
“We’re designed to be active and engaged. We know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice- doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause larger than ourselves.”
This philosophy has huge implications for my own work with communities and in leadership and education. One of the most contentious debates in humanitarian aid is around handouts and stipends at trainings and forums - and if those handouts have distorted the reasons people had originally started coming to them. One of the challenges we grapple with is a worry around whether people are coming with the motivation to learn/work on a joint issue, or if they are there only to collect the stipend associated with it. Now, don't get me wrong. Just as Pink points out in his book, people's needs need to be met, and there is a time and place for "free pizza." However, if those are further used to encourage engagement or affinity, we are wasting our time and money. We need to instead be creating opportunities and spaces for those individuals and groups to develop their autonomy, mastery, and purpose.