Dan Pink – The Consulting Artist

Dan Pink was in town on Jan 27th at the RSA to talk about Drive, The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us. I was planning to go on the off chance of getting in however I was offered two tickets on the day. In turn I offered the second ticket to my network and was joined by Sean Trainor. It was a good job we had the tickets as the place was completely sold out.

Dan talks about rewards and punishment as reasons why we do, and don’t do stuff, and encourages us to think about other reasons why we do stuff. Because they are interesting, because we like doing them, because we want to get better, to learn. He argues that rewards almost always don’t work.

He concedes that performing a mechanical task can be enhanced through the offer of a carrot, a financial incentive. Dan then goes on to illustrate, through a number of examples, how financial incentives don’t work when offered to complete tasks which require even rudimentary cognitive skills.

The talk includes examples on why punishment doesn’t work, why feedback is important, why making progress is a good motivator, and other interesting things besides.

The talk was enjoyable and developed the discussion Dan started when he spoke at TED in 2009. Yes he is selling his book, and yet this was a soft sell. Dan’s done some interesting homework and presents his findings in a compelling way.

The talk lasts around 33 minutes and I encourage you to download it from here and have a listen.

Sean and I both asked a question. Sean’s is timed at 59.01 on the download and asks about bankers bonuses. The banks say that if they can’t pay out huge bonuses then staff will leave. Does Dan Pink think they will go and is that a bad thing? Dan’s reply is this is not a fact; it’s a hypothesis, so let’s test the hypothesis (cue big round of applause). He believes some bankers won’t walk because they like what they are doing and others won’t walk because they know what a good deal they are on.

If you’re interested, my question is asked at 59.22 and responded to at 1.00.56.

Every year I’m fortunate to experience lots of change. I enjoy it. The mix of excitement, uncertainty, and the helpfulness of so many people I’m fortunate to know make for a thrilling journey.

2009 has been exceptional. My forays into the world of social media exploded as the Stop Doing Dumb Things to Customers blogging experiment went from strength to strength. Thousands of people tuned in and many have contributed and co-created too. This inspired me to try and improve the mix of employee, customer and social engagement offered through the blog, and through LinkedIn and through facebook, and beyond. I found real enjoyment in writing and it helped make some fantastic new connections, of which more in a minute.

In the summer of this year, I resigned from a successful and enjoyable 12.5 year career working for BT which encompassed sales, sustainability, change management and employee engagement. I’ve started a new business (well someone had to). It’s called What Goes Around Limited. I hope it will bring the very best of what I’ve learned and am learning about engagement, sustainability, leadership, trust and autonomy in pursuit of great service to an even wider audience. In the few short months that What Goes Around has been in existence, we’ve enjoyed some success, uncovered lots of opportunities and made plenty of mistakes. Sorry, I mean learned lots of valuable lessons.

Something I learned a few years ago (I think it happened when I became a father) which I want to amplify today is the power of sharing. My experience of large organisations has taught me that sharing is often spoken about, and rarely practiced. The old maxim knowledge is power only feels right to me when the knowledge is shared to create power with others. Yet too often knowledge is selfishly held close in the belief that it can create power over others, where its value is truly limited, and sometimes even dangerous. In the belief that we can co-create more real power and movement in 2010, I want to share just a few of the many people and things which have inspired me in this exceptional year of change.

Have a great Christmas, and an exciting New Year.

Doug Shaw
07736 518066
What Goes Around Limited
Registered in England. Company number 06997727

Inspiring people, places and things

Jonathan Wilson. Jonathan is one of the most fascinating people I know. Though I’ve known him for some years, I include him on this list because the new ideas and opportunities he introduces me to make it feel like I’m often meeting him for the first time. This year he showed me a great way to measure communication and performance within a team, and improve it.

Is Bad Behaviour Killing Big Business. My friend Katherine Wiid encouraged me to start what is now a growing network on LinkedIn full of interesting people sharing, learning and having some fun discussing stuff about behaviour. Click here and if you like what you see, please feel free to join in.

David Zinger. Katherine then introduced me to David Zinger’s employee engagement network. A growing, thriving network of people with a sincere interest in this exciting subject. David also runs davidzinger.com an interesting and useful site full of insight, cartoons, poetry, plans and the Zinger employee engagement model.

Life Without Pants. Through David Zinger’s network I met Shereen Qutob-Cabral. Shereen is an enthusiast and a motivator. She showed me the way to Life Without Pants and its owner Matt Cheuvront. Matt writes and collaborates wonderfully. Amongst the wonderful things you can find at Life Without Pants is a great read called the Inconvenience of Change. 38 bloggers coming together each with their own story and perspective on how to inspire change.

What Matters Now. After enjoying the great work on Life Without Pants, I went seeking more. I found What Matters Now, which is the work of more than 60 people with big ideas and something to say. It will inspire you to make some changes in 2010, and to keep doing work that matters. Please download it and share it with your colleagues.

Other folk who’ve given me a hand in 2009 include Chris Plush, Tony Mason, Walter Hicks, Gary Smailes, Pete Massey, Dan Pink, Kate Davies, Ross Clephane, Lyndon Wright, David MacLeod, David Shanks (who gave me the name What Goes Around Limited), Dave and Maggie Wheeler, Huw Williams, Joseph Bridgstock, Tamar Collis, Charlie Duff, my dad Paul and my darling wife Carole and lovely daughter Keira Joe. For every experience I recall there are more I can’t right now so my apologies if I’ve forgotten to acknowledge your help and co-creation this time, I hope to do better in the future.