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I just finished watching an incredible presentation on TED about the “Surprising Science Behind Motivation” by Dan Pink.  He reveals a number of practical examples about why the typical intrinsic motivators we use every day in business stifle creativity.  One such example is the contrast between Microsoft Encarta and Wikipedia.  Microsoft hired a highly-trained team of developers committed to delivering the project on time and on budget.  These developers would receive rewards as motivation for meeting tough deadlines.  Dan pink calls this type of motivation “carrots and sticks”.  Encarta is set to be terminated on October 31, 2009.

Wikipedia was created with an entirely different model.  No one was paid one cent, one dollar, one yen… The project was conceived out of passion and the belief they were on to something incredible.  Dan poses the question, “What would economists have predicted would have been the more successful method?”

Further, Dan Pink talks about Google having a 20 percent time policy where developers are given 20 percent of their day to dedicate to whatever they wish.  These ideas are later proposed in meetings.  I was shocked to hear that over 50% of the Google products in a typical year are produced from this 20 percent time.

This afternoon between projects and meetings I found a little time to walk over to Marie Catrib’s on the corner of Diamond and Lake Drive to grab a Russian Sandwich on thinly sliced holla bread.  Because my job is output so much of the time (creating concepts for client videos, directing short films, creating websites, designing brand identities, ect) I’ve found it incredibly rewarding and imperative to take short amount of time each day to listen, watch and read about the most interesting people, products and concepts in the world.  This afternoon I watched a video on Vimeo featuring Seth Godin at the 2006 Gel Conference.  He partnered to create a website called This is Broken, a project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it.  He showcases things poorly designed and why they are that way.  We all have something to learn from this seminar.

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.