Daniel H. Pink has
analysed and studied the aspect of motivation in the world of
business for several years. Now, he has reached a remarkable
conclusion where he claims that conventional ways of motivating and
encouraging employees through financial incentives simply does not
work anymore.
Motivating Businesses
In several
studies, social observers and scientists have discovered that
external rewards tend to limit the focus of employees and narrow
possibilities. This makes it even more challenging for individuals to
work on creative solutions for complicated problems. In fact, one of
the times that incentives proved effective was only when the
difficulty was mechanical and there was a clear and straightforward
the path to the solution. It was found that most businesses across
the entire globe have expressed that employee motivation tends to
enhance when individuals are offered autonomy. This is works as a
driving purpose and creates a strong desire to further hone their
craft.
Dan Pink is
renowned author of 5 books on business and management which have sold
over 2 million copies globally. He is also the host of a National
Geographic Channel show called Crowd Control. During his recent TED
talk, he spoke about the state of business, but it was clear that his
arguments were also relevant to education and schools. Nowadays,
educators are teaching learners to prepare them for a world, where
jobs are increasingly needing problem solving skills, critical
thinking skills as well as creativity.
Transforming Education
The fact is that
most schools are attempting to follow this thinking and approach in
their classrooms in order to enable their learners to practice with
solving complex problems. However, most students do not have the
needed autonomy, purpose or mastery which can empower them to build
intrinsic motivation and find a suitable solution.
Pink's book 'To
Sell is Human' talks about how education has become one of the most
rapidly expanding job categories in the nation. This level of
development brings an excellent opportunity to transform the manner
in which teachers envision and imagine their roles as well as their
classrooms. Established by findings in neuroscience studies and
educational research, the focus on cognitive skills, like
memorisation and computation, is transforming to incorporate less
tangible and non-cognitive skills, such as improvisation and
collaboration.
Pink said, “The
premium has moved from problem solving to problem finding as a skill.
Right now, especially in the commercial world, if I know exactly what
my problem is, I can find the solution to my own problem. I don’t
need someone to help me. Where I need help is when I don’t know
what my problem is or when I’m wrong about what my problem is.
Problem solving is an analytical, deductive kind of skill. The phrase
‘problem finding’ comes out of research on artists. It’s more
of a conceptual kind of skill.”
Then how can
teachers help students to be problem-finders even when they do not
have any idea about what the problem is? Pink added “A lot of
people hate this word but I think we have to take it seriously, which
is relevance. There’s something to be said for connecting
particular lessons to something in the real world.”
What do you think?
Feel free to share your own thoughts and ideas on this topic by
commenting below. We would love to hear from you.
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