Take the Dan Pink Challenge: Make Time for Non-commissioned Work

Today at the Creativity World Forum in Oklahoma City, noted author and researcher Daniel Pink challenged audience members to make time for “non-commissioned work.” Citing examples from successful businesses like Google utilizing “20% time” when employees are encouraged to work on projects of personal interest and passion, Dan explained why “carrots and sticks” don’t work well to encourage creativity. Dan contends we don’t want to get rid of all carrots and sticks (money is a powerful motivator, and we need compliance in many cases) but when it comes to CREATIVITY we need new models for encouraging the behaviors we want to see. This applies to our SCHOOLS as well as businesses and other organizations. Here’s a 15 minute video excerpt of his talk today. His discussion of how research linking teacher pay to student test scores has shown ZERO positive impact on student achievement is particularly important and relevant today. I’ve embedded the video below to start at the 3:48 point, when Dan starts to talk about what motivates artists and the idea of “non-commissioned work.”

See my notes from Sir Ken Robinson‘s comments and the panel with Sir Ken and Dan which was facilitated by David Pogue for more.

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