Incito MentisA blog by Syed Abdul Karim

Just finished reading another amazing book by Daniel Pink – Drive. It’s a nice amalgamation of thoughts and learning from some of the greatest psychologists and behavioral economists of our time and Dan Pink wonderfully builds on their thinking to give us a nice operating system for the 21st century – dubbed Motivation 3.0. It is the key to unlocking hidden human potential especially in this day and age when the world needs more creative and conceptual thinking. The most profound learning for me was the impact of this thinking on parenting. I guess this is the change in perspective that comes when you became a father of three kids.

So what is the big learning. The idea that we as humans do our best when we are inner directed and self-driven is both very intuitive and at the same time quite unreal. Why the paradox? Well there are so many people out there who seem to only operate when there is a carrot or stick to drive them forward. They seem to be getting by, following the wave, going with the flow of the status quo. Thinking about why this is so I realized that this is a probably a symptom of Motivation 2.0, as Dan Pink puts it. After spending years of their life in a world of Motivation 2.0, people feel succumbed and resistant to the idea of autonomy. Now it is hard for them to imagine being self-directed and tune in to their inner selves. And I believe a large part of this has to do with parenting and schooling. What happens in an organizational life only further perpetuates a mindset many have grown up with. This is the reason why I feel it is important to positively influence the environment early on for kids and help them find their way to a self-directed and autonomous way of living.

Although the principles in the book apply across all life stages I have looked at them from a perspective of parenting. What are the the three driving principles of Motivation 3.0 as Dan Pink puts it?

• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Larger Purpose

These are simple yet powerful principles that are key to unlocking human or a child’s hidden potential. The key premise being that we as humans thrive in an environment when we are given the freedom to do what we want to do, how we want to do, when we want to do and who we want to do it with. Obviously from a child’s perspective it seems bizarre to let them simply even do what they want since a young mind will not always know the difference between something harmful and harmless and therefore could end up doing some serious damage to themselves or to someone around them.

However, with proper direction and a set of controlled variables a child can be given the freedom to choose and practice some level of autonomy. For example, if a child is sent to the library for an hour to freely explore and choose a book as he pleases, there is little damage he could do but what he would do out of his own choice will be far more enabling and motivating then any forced learning.

The principle of Mastery is yet another profound concept. The idea being to shift behavior from performance goals to learning goals. For example, getting an A in science or becoming an explorer of the universe are two different things. Dan Pink talked about how performance goals have driven many corporate executives to game the system and focus so narrowly on short-term targets that they vastly undermine an organizations longer term interests. The same applies to children. A blind focus on grades means less learning and more focusing on anything that will help to get the grade. The quest for mastery creates enthusiasm and creates engagement in the task itself. One key trigger of this behavior is the mindset. If a child believes their intelligence is limited they would push to a certain extent until their self-belief drives them to stop trying. This was proven in an experiment when in another scenario children who believe that intelligence is expandable and can be nurtured work harder to overcome challenging situations. One way to put a child on the quest for mastery is to create opportunities which encourage “Flow” – a concept by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi which he covered in a book by the same name. Those experiences when we are engaged in a Goldilocks task – not too hard, not too easy, but just right keep us going. And it is through these everyday experiences of “flow” we can set ourselves and our children on a path to mastery.

Last but not least, driving behavior through a larger purpose. I think this idea is important at all levels. From a child to an organization. Brands which adopt a larger purpose not only build loyalty amongst it’s customers but also it’s employees. I think there is a DNA code within us that drives us to pursue a purpose larger than ourselves and it is this larger purpose that makes us the most happy. The same applies for children. Explaining to them the larger purpose of what they are doing and why they are doing it can really drive them forward to pursue a task with greater zeal.

I could probably go on writing but in sum, Motivation 3.0 is driven by three principles: Autonomy, Mastery and Larger Purpose. This is one of the longest posts I have written and despite that I don’t think I have done justice to both the book and the topic. Drive is an amazing light read – one that I would highly recommend whether you are a parent, teacher, organization leader or simply human. It has some lessons in there for everyone.

It is amazing how the human brain works. Some of the findings from behavioral economics on our decision making abilities are both shocking and fascinating, to say the least. It’s like looking at an engine from the inside and seeing how everything works. As a planner understanding human behavior is always a cherished and critical part of my work. While reading about some of these concepts I could not help but realize how obviously we err when it comes to making a decision.

I have talked about Behavioral Economics in earlier posts as well. Here I would like to talk about the concept of anchoring. Let’s see how it works. What if I were to tell you that you have to guess the price of a premium chocolate bar and before doing so I make you write down the last two digits of your ID card. What would happen? You are most likely going to select a number that is close to your ‘anchor’ (in this case the last two digits of your ID card).

Don’t believe this. A number of experiments with students from MIT have been done with a similar setup. When the results were analyzed it was noted that all respondents chose a number that was close to their respective anchor*. This is known as ‘arbitrary coherence’. If we reflect on our lives we will find many occasions when our own anchors have influenced our decisions. Remember the price of the first Widescreen TV that you may have bought and then think about all future upgrades. The price you paid for the first TV will be your anchor for all future purchases.

What are the implications of “anchoring” on us at a personal level? For one not all our anchors may be in our best interest. Owing to some arbitrary coherence we may have anchored on values that are much higher than what they should be (at least from a rational perspective). Knowing how our brain works and our tendency to anchor so irrationally we can perhaps make better decisions.

So what’s the implication of this concept in marketing and branding? One brilliant example that comes to mind was the launch of a soft drink in the United Kingdom (I just can’t remember the name). In a highly competitive category with a limited budget this brand used anchoring to influence consumer behavior with great effect. What was the big idea? Outside the stadium before the end of a big game the company dumped hundreds of empty cans in and around all the trash bins filling them up to create the effect that this drink was consumed by hundreds of people from the audience. When the match finished fans leaving the stadium noticed these cans wondering why they did not see this drink anywhere. This creatively introduced the brand to thousands at the stadium for a minimal cost and triggered them to inquire retailers about the mystery beverage facilitating the soft drinks eventual arrival to the trade. This is a great example of how an anchor was used to cue popularity when launching a new product. Have you come across other examples of anchoring used in marketing?

*You can read more about this in Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational.

I bumped across a tweet by Chris Voss on the subject and it intrigued me quite a bit. This is highly unusual considering the fact that in Saudi Arabia at Applebees there is a note on the bill that reminds you to please tip the server despite the service charge! It made me want to dig a little deeper on this subject and I discovered some fascinating contrasts between Saudi and Icelandic society. I also got some insight as to why waiters in Iceland would take offense if they were tipped.

For one Icelanders are a very homogenous society unlike Saudi Arabia which is a mix of Arabs from all over the Middle East to Asians from Pakistan all the way up to the Philippines. Most Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian and Celtic people who settled in the 9th and 10th centuries. Their language has essentially been the same over the centuries. For the common Icelander reading their old medieval sagas from the 1200s is relatively easy for the same reason. This gives them alot of pride in tracing their ancestral roots. They are also homogenous when it comes to religion – 87% belong to the state church. They are egalitarian and highly literate. They have a great love of literature. They publish more books than any country in the world, while there are hardly any libraries in Saudi Arabia. Doing well and finishing one’s education are widely held societal priorities unlike Saudi Arabia where it is only beginning to become a top priority

Icelanders are also known to be very independent and individualistic, while Saudi society is extremely interdependent and collectivist. Icelanders have a strong work ethic. The country’s work week is the longest in Europe. While in Saudi people have not developed the same sense about work. This explains why there are so many expats in the workforce.

In Iceland before the mid-70s working as a server was considered a demeaning job. Tipping was therefore considered an insult as it further emphasized the server’s position as a servant. Therefore there is no tradition to tip in Iceland. Before the 70s going out was also not popular and there were not many restaurants either. However, that has changed since then, but the tradition of no tipping has continued. While in Saudi Arabia, people eat out very often. Most servers are expatriates and they are only here to make money. Therefore they feel no shame in being tipped. Rather they would be very grateful for the gesture! Interesting contrast don’t you think?

What can I say about Dan Ariely! This book is simply awesome! It’s a goldmine of insights. A must-read for planners looking to understand human behavior. This whole idea of behavioral economics is very intriguing (I did a post earlier on the same subject). Through a series of experiments Dan repeatedly proves his point about the infallibility of our mind that drives us to make decisions and do things we rationally cannot imagine doing. The scope of his research covers various dimensions of life from society to economics, from the mundane to the extraordinary. The findings are shockingly counterintuitive. For example, how a decoy on the Economist Subscription page leads people to go for the expensive print plus web subscription because the decoy makes it seem that the web subscription has been thrown in for free. Whereas without the decoy experiments have proven that most people went for the cheaper web-only option. See image below (although this has been changed now!). How can we be manipulated so easily?

I would like to talk about a whole bunch of such intriguing examples and insights, but I guess I would save those for later posts. But I would like to point to a section towards the end of the book which I think captures it’s essence. It is surprising to see how in a world where “change is the only constant” some old ways of looking at the world continue to dominate popular thinking. The analogy that Dan draws on is how man is clear when it comes to his physical limitations and is using all resources and technology to overcome these limitations but when it comes to the mind he believes he is limitless, flawless and continues to operate under the age-old framework of rational economics to explain how he would behave in real life. This he proves through the course of his book is far from true. He also states that continuing to operate under this framework is dangerous as some key issues facing mankind need to be addressed like how to avoid getting into another big economic crisis, how to create better educational systems, how to model health-care etc. It is time for us to look more openly and challenge these conventional ways of dealing with societal and economic issues.

Not surprisingly Dan also spoke about the core concepts of his book in a talk at TED. I have posted the video here. Check it out !