This is a follow-on thought from my post on Daniel Pink’s TED talk.

Research has shown that the Carrots & Sticks approach to motivating people actually destroys their creativity.

What does this say about jobs where the issue of money, of being paid a decent salary, is very much based on such an approach? Such as in sales – the commission-based remuneration model is clearly a Carrots & …

This TED talk by Daniel Pink presents some counter-intuitive and interesting research on the relationship between motivation and performance in problem solving/creative thinking jobs.

More money or more threats only work on simple process-based jobs. Extrinsic motivation only works when the work does not really matter beyond doing it.

Intrinsic motivation, doing something because it is meaningful, because it matters, is what is needed to motivate the new set of …

Not surprising. Via tweet by Bob Jacobson.

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2009/08/the-best-board-meetings.html

Boards need to be forward looking. Surely this is obvious. The people who steer the fleet must look forward.

But it is so much easier to look backwards. The majority of the way business operates is looking backwards. Most board members were trained as administrators, or worked themselves not visionaries

And because uncertainty is scary. And visionaries could be wrong.

Intelligence is open, multidisciplinary and inherently collaborative…

Are you cultivating these values in your organisation? Or in your own personal growth?

Even as we move more and more into a virtual world, where everything is “soft” and infinitely malleable, we increasingly crave the reassurance of the real.

Worried about someone remotely using your webcam to spy on you? There’s always been a software switch to disable a webcam in your OS. But this physical switch/cover is far more reassuring. It provides a real sense of control unmatched by the soft …

It is interesting how Apple’s brand has become synonymous with the personality of Steve Jobs. Like it or hate it, this makes Apple as a brand very rich and real.

It is also interesting how it is often in times of difficulty that the true beliefs and values of a person/brand are revealed. And without a doubt Apple is in some difficulties at the moment around the iPhone …

Right now, social media is boring. Just like normal media is boring.

Most human chatter IS boring most of the time. Try and listen in on conversations at cafes and restaurants. Keep your ears open at functions and family events. Social media is primarily a giant gossip pit. Very human. Just as we have been for millennia. It is gossip and fluff. See the screengrab here. …

The following is a collection of somewhat related thoughts I found on my Blackberry:

Empathy requires active involvement and constant flow of information. So as to help us stay in character. Trying to stay in someone else’s shoes without this stream of input (the active and present engagement with someone) is hard!

Second-guessing is working from a position of minimal info. It is making assumptions about what someone …

This is a quick snip snip of the choicest bits, the bits that stood out for me as I was reading this article, “Nice and nasty does it: Shirky the ‘net guru’ on what the future holds” by Decca Aitkenhead in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“And to put it in one bleak sentence, no medium has ever survived the indifference of 25-year-olds.”

The business model of the traditional …

A beautiful, short, fun and thought-provoking animation about mirror neurons, empathy, the future and the world. Challenging the assumptions about human nature, the assumptions that many of our institutions, like education, are based on. Eg we are hard wired for sociability, attachment, affection and companionship. Not aggression or self interest.

“We are soft wired to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves … The first …