Altruism at Work

Click here for a comical look at altruism at the workplace. Enjoy! :-)

I'm Just Not That Type of Person

You've heard it before. "I don't feel attracted to him. He's just not my type." Or maybe "I would definitely not feel comfortable doing that. I'm just not that type of person." But what do we actually mean when we label someone as "not our type" or announce that "we're not that type of person"? Are we talking about their personality, character, looks (not attractive), worldview (distinct from our own), etc.? Or maybe a mixture of all of the above?

How about someone being a Type X instead of a Type I? Never heard of them before? According to Daniel Pink, who wrote the New York Times bestseller Drive. The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, these two terms stand for people who are generally either extrinsically (Type X) or intrinsically (Type I) motivated. And he has pretty strong opinions on what we need to do in regards to our motivation in order to make our world a better place:

Be Smart When You Reward

There are some things in life that are black and white. Either right or wrong. Good or bad. Helpful or not. Achieving its objective or not. And then there are situations where it depends. According to Daniel Pink, author of Drive. The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, using extrinsic rewards as motivation is one of those things. He's generally not a big fan of the so-called "carrots and sticks" approach: rewarding for good and punishing for bad behavior in order to get the behavior you want. There are just too many things that can go wrong, leading him to sum it up in his seven reasons why carrots and sticks usually fail*:

Paying Your Kids To Take Out The Trash

Ok, so people are complicated creatures. Sometimes they do what you expect them to do and sometimes they don't. And then every once in a while they totally surprise you... by doing the exact opposite of what you expected them to do. Need an example? In 2000 a couple of economists studied a child care center in Haifa, Israel for several months. It opened at 7:30 a.m. and closed at 4 p.m. every day and parents were asked to pick up their children by this closing time, or a teacher would have to stay late. During the first month, the economists observed how many parents arrived late to get their kids. Then, with the permission of the day care center, they put up a sign announcing a fine of 10 Israeli shekel (about 3 U.S. dollars at the time) for each child that was picked up after 4:10 p.m.

When Extrinsic Rewards Fail... Or Worse

It's one of the most popular exercises that psychologists like to use when it comes to testing someone's ability to solve a problem: in this case, the "candle problem." The subject is given a candle, some tacks in a box and matches (see the image). They are then asked to attach the candle to the wall in such a way that the wax doesn't drip onto the table. Most people take about five to ten minutes to find the solution. How long does it take you?

Painting Fences and Drawing For Rewards

Sometimes things can backfire on you. Your actions may have unintended consequences that you really didn't expect. Maybe you gave someone an incentive to do something and it didn't work. Or even worse: he did the exact opposite of what you wanted him to do. When an attempted solution to a problem actually makes the problem worse, economists call this the cobra effect (for an interesting podcast on the subject, click here). And as Daniel Pink notes in his book Drive. The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us something similar can happen when it comes to motivation:

Mechanisms designed to increase motivation can dampen it. Tactics aimed at boosting creativity can reduce it. Programs to promote good deeds can make them disappear. Meanwhile, instead of restraining negative behavior, rewards and punishments can often set it loose -- and give rise to cheating, addiction, and dangerously myopic thinking. (p. 35)