motivation daniel pink
leadership
The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Accelerate frequently chronicles the hard work of building and nurturing teams because we believe that real teams are the antidote to the chaos of modern medicine (in the words of Dr. Tom Lee). Here, we highlight a necessary ingredient of high-performing teams: motivation.

An idea worth spreading

Motivating is a critical aspect of leadership in any field, but especially important in health care. Health care is delivered in teams, and most of the time, the individuals on the team report to different people. Traditional rewards (or punishments) are often unavailable (and probably ineffective at changing long-term behavior). The skills of influencing and motivating are key to building and nurturing a great team.

Many of you have found the work of Daniel Pink highly instructive. In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us , Pink dispels the myth that extrinsic factors, such as a financial reward or punishment, are effective motivators. Instead, he writes that intrinsic motivation is a much more successful and sustainable. Specifically, leaders should focus on offering autonomy, mastery, and purpose to increase performance and employee engagement.

The puzzle of motivation

If you haven’t seen it before, we—and over 18 million other viewers—encourage you to watch it.

No time for a TED Talk? Read the HBR article here.

 

Contributor

Mari Ransco

Editor-in-Chief, Accelerate Learning Community; Senior Director, Patient Experience and Accelerate, University of Utah Health

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