This book is, essentially, an exploration of the history of intrinsic motivation research. It argues that reward/punishment business structures no longer work because humans have a "third drive" that dictates human behavior after our needs have been met. Standard "old hat" ideas for anyone who has ever read motivation research... money isn't a motivator and actually demotivates, etc.

For people who have never read motivation research and don't really understand why modern businesses have such high turnover, the foundational elements needed to breed innovation, etc.

It feels like a 2nd rate Malcolm Gladwell. Pink did his research but didn't seem to explore very deeply. He hit the major researchers and theories that should be well-known to anyone with a business background... for example: Drucker, Amabile, Deming, Deci, McGregor. Pink also goes over some of the most basic and common business examples I can think of: 3M's Post-Its... the more modern story of Zappos... etc. These are mind-numbing by now. Everyone knows them.

The writing style was... trying too hard. Attempts at cleverness were pretty cringe-inducing. The headers throughout the book (and the tool kit) were this sort of "clever" or "cutesy" phrasing. This rendered the "Tool Kit" pretty useless, since you had to read the blocks of text to have any idea what these tips/hints/methods meant. In addition to regurgitating what was said throughout the book with cutesy "memorable" titles, the Tool Kit offers no advice as to HOW to implement anything. Not even basic change management techniques. It appears to not really know its audience, as sometimes it offers "tips" for upper management while at other times, the advice appears to be directed toward random non-management people (which is beyond pointless-- idealistic nonsense aside, one lone non-management employee cannot change or even begin to change an organization's culture!).

Slap the author and tell him that, no... Agile/SCRUM management is absolutely NOT a business "tip" for a general audience. The example he uses is a software company... which makes sense, since Agile is used almost solely in software companies... because its application is most fitting for incremental product innovation in project-based companies (sounds like a software company, no?). It also focuses on speed over perfection... which is fine for a software company that can release patches and updates whenever it wants. That's nearly impossible for any other type of product or service.

This book made me BORED. I have 6 years of leadership and management education at this point, so I learned nothing from this book. He offers a few "original" ideas that feel unnecessary to me but could possibly help practitioners. For those who went through standard MBA programs that didn't explore the soft skills required, this could be a helpful overview, but prepare to be bored by large sections that are business 101.

Ugh. I'll just call it a day. This book is obnoxious. Additional annoyances: 1. It has a simplified "how to discuss this entire book with someone in 5 minutes or less" guide included. 2. It has a cheat-sheet guide to the "gurus"... i.e. people like Deming and Herzberg and etc. The list only includes a handful of people... who are not the most relevant for the topic of the book. Go figure.

I would recommend this book ONLY for people who have had no formal business education but find themselves in a leadership position or decide to start their own business. To anyone else, this will be like nails on a chalk board.

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Created Mar 13, 2018 at 5:02pm • Submit your own review...