Dan Pink: Carrot and the Stick; less motivating then ever

The carrot and the stick have been used for quite some time in order to provoke more efficient behavior. But according to Dan Pink's TED talk, things aren't quite what they seem. The traditional ways of incentives have been proven wrong through multiple studies that show that higher rewards lead to poorer results. Dan Pink was able to convey these ideas in an effective way since he used a lot of humor in his talk. Using examples shown on the overhead, he got his audience to connect with the test subjects so they could fully understand both sides of this situation; the tester and test subject. Personally, this affects me because it shows that in order to really excel at something, there needs to be no incentive other than my own driving force to do it. In education, hard work is rewarded by good grades and vice versa. In order to really excel in school, students need to be more self-directed towards subjects they really want to learn. Businesses for too long have been using this carrot stick mentality, and should be progressing on to this new type of self-motivated working. This would improve things financially and production rate and employee hapiness would both be part of the benefits from this.