A Joosr Guide to Drive by Daniel Pink

To sow autonomy, you need to allow freedom. You can do this by taking inventory of how much freedom your team has over common activities such as work groups, time spent at work, when breaks can be taken, what projects need to be worked on at a given time, and so forth.

This can help you to establish if your team feels they have ownership of their tasks.

To gauge the atmosphere of purpose, try asking people what the purpose of your company or team is, and collect answers anonymously.

When fostered, autonomy is an incredibly powerful motivator. Environments where Type I personalities have autonomy foster increased productivity, a better physical and mental state, greater understanding, higher job satisfaction, and overall better work.

Pursuing mastery is difficult, time-consuming, and sometimes painful, but those who are intrinsically motivated continue to pursue it passionately anyway.

Just as Type X behavior is encouraged by rewards and punishments, Type I can be encouraged by a group of important factors: purpose, mastery, and autonomy.

People who exhibit this behavior tend to be motivated by passion, beliefs, and challenges, instead of profits and impersonal goals.

Type I behavior is focused on intrinsic desires instead of external influences, meaning constant rewards and punishments aren’t needed to get employees working.

This focus drove productivity through external rewards and punishments; but it’s not how people operate today.

We worked hard to pursue enough food to keep us strong, find adequate shelter from predators and the elements, and to generally keep ourselves safe and alive.