Motivations of people are complex and interesting because the science behind this process is surprising. People are not so predictable and manipulable and the most important issues are the reward that fosters desirable behavior and the punishment which discourages a certain behavior. There were studies done at MIT and where the researchers gave certain challenges to students and these included memorizing numbers, word and spatial puzzles as well as physical tasks. “To incentivize their performance they gave them three levels of rewards” (Pink). There was a small, medium and a large cash reward and this works in most organizations where the workers are divided into top and low performers. Moreover, there are people in the middle who get their small portion as well. The tests results show that the tasks that are related to mechanical skills are performed well. “The higher the pay, the better the performance” (Pink). However, when cognitive skills are required, a bigger reward leads to the worse performance. The economists explain this situation by “saying that once you get above rudimentary cognitive skill, it’s the other way around” and the reward does not match the motivation. Psychologists, sociologists and economists were used to give the credibility to the main argument that if the tasks are simple, people are motivated, but the tasks that require following the rules that are complicated, and involve conceptual work and creativity, there are no motivators which would work.
There is ethos involved in Pink’s presentation because he mentions a research conducted by the best economists from the country. There is also logos because of the information which is presented in a logical way and well explained with the use of professional vocabulary. When he mentions socialism, this is related to pathos because the behavior when people are not encouraged to do their best when offered the biggest prize, is not normal in a capitalist society. “This defies the laws of behavioral physics” (Pink). The experiment is replicated in India where the contestants are offered the same amount of money which is more valuable in this part of the world. In this case there was no difference between the motivation of the people offered the small and the medium rewards. The people who were supposed to perform best for the biggest reward were the worst.
The speaker is very persuasive because he offers evidence based on experiments and the animator follows him and draws simultaneously. The two of them are in agreement and it seems that the speaker is the one who is also doing the animations. This does not hurt the messages because the speaker and the animator are coordinated. The animator uses pathos because he draws characters that are easy to sympathize with and he is writing the crucial explanations. The use of red and black pens is stimulating because people are used to looking at the color red for significance.
The best motivator is money but in a way that people have to be well paid in order to give their best performance. Therefore, it is best “to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table” (Pink). In this case, people are not going to think about money, but about work. People do not want to waste energy if their reward is not going to satisfy them enough. There are three factors that motivate people apart from personal satisfaction and these are autonomy, purpose and mastery. People like to solve issues by themselves because it gives them the sense of importance. What is important in the work place is to let people have self-direction. Research shows that people perform better if they are given autonomy which means that management has to loosen up the rules at work. New ideas are born this way and the speaker involves authority in this case because he wants to emphasize the role of being self-governed. People perform better if they are given the autonomy instead of being offered money. This comes from a credible source when a research was performed in an Australian company where people were given free time to reach innovations. The speaker involves both ethos and logos in this example because the company is credible and a serious experiment was conducted. Mastery is also related to pathos because all professional people strive for perfection and want to be better at what they are doing. Linux, Apache and Wikipedia are projects that are done by top professional for free and this example involves pathos and the sense of purpose. The speaker is speaking loudly when he wants to prove an important point and this is also affecting the way this presentation is delivered and accepted as credible. The strange pattern of behavior means that people who are highly skilled and well paid professionals do work for free. That is because they want to make a contribution to the world and to have a purpose in life other than gaining money. It is not charity work, it is about leaving trace and doing good in life for the benefit of many people. This is also challenging for these people and they practice their skills this way as well.
Purpose is important because it gives sense to all the work that is done and makes the employees want to achieve better. Money needs to be separated from the purpose so that people would feel that they have more importance in their work place. Profit can never replace the purpose although people can be motivated to work for a great amount of money. People should also be treated as human beings who have motivations and needs and not only as the working force so that they would perform better. The logical fallacy that can be noticed is appeal to the authority, because top companies and top innovators are mentioned throughout the presentation. There are also emotional words which are used such as: motivation, purpose, autonomy, mastery and innovation. The pacing is well done because the speaker keeps attention with the help of the animator who writes the most important sentences using the red pen.
People are motivated in a particular way which involves their feeling of self-worth and they get it if they are allowed to do work on their own and not follow the rules of their bosses. It is interesting to see that money is not the only motivator and that people need to be able to feel appreciated in order to give their best performance.
Works Cited
Pink, Dan. "RSA ANIMATE: Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us ." N.p., 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. <https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2010/04/rsa-animate---drive/>.
