In this month's Sunday Telegraph column, Dan Pink extrapolates from research to suggest that what's missing in business is an emphasis on Why -- that is, an emphasis on the purpose of the organization. He proposes that if you ask employees to write down what they think is the purpose of the organization, and remind them of it regularly, that people will perform with enormous productivity gains.
I think that's an interesting hypothesis, and it may well be true, but the research he cites reports on something more specific. The research suggests that when people are primed to think about how their actions will benefit others, their productivity more than doubles. Equally fascinating, I think, is that when people are primed to think about how their actions will benefit themselves, they do no better than the control group.
I know I should accept reality as is and not hope for it to bend to my absurd expectations, but this research really gives me a good feeling.
I'm going to have to keep thinking about this. The implications seem Big.
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If these ideas are true, it would be the second time that Dan Pink has given me serious doubts about the practical usefulness of economic theory. Here's the first.
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