The puzzle of motivation

In his thought-provoking TED Talk, Dan Pink challenges the traditional “carrot-and-stick” approach to motivation, revealing that for most modern, creative, and problem-solving tasks, external rewards—like bonuses or prizes—actually hinder performance rather than help. He opens with the “candle problem” experiment, showing how financial incentives can slow down innovative thinking—people offered extra money took significantly longer to solve it compared to those who weren’t.

Pink argues that organizations often ignore solid social science: while rewards may be effective for simple, routine tasks, they backfire in contexts requiring creativity or complex decision-making . Instead, he advocates for tapping into intrinsic motivators, powered by three critical human needs:

1. Autonomy – the freedom to choose what, when, and how to work

2. Mastery – the drive to improve and get better at meaningful skills

3. Purpose – working towards something larger than oneself

He highlights inspiring examples: Google’s “20% time,” Atlassian’s innovation days, and ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) models, where creative output soared when individuals controlled their work. Pink contrasts Wikipedia’s intrinsic-motivation-generated success with Encarta’s failure, showcasing how autonomy-driven models outperform incentive-based ones.