What drives you?

Daniel Pink

If things seem a little quiet round here it’s because I am busy settling into my new apartment in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong, and there’s not much time for blogging. But here’s something I found today that is both profound, inspiring, and artistically impressive. It comes from Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind (a fascinating book in itself). Pink argues that the shakers and movers of tomorrow will not be the analytical, critical left-brained thinkers, but right-brained thinkers who are creative, imaginative, big picture people who are capable of synthesising information from disparate sources and fields. These are the meaning makers and pattern recognisers.

There’s a great little video of pink’s on YouTube. It’s one of those animated videos where an artist draws pictures in fast time as the narrator gives a voice over. What I like about that medium is that it engages the right brain. It is perfectly consistent with Pink’s essential arguments. The precise estimates vary, but there’s a saying that people remember 10 % of what they read, 20 % of what they hear, 50% of what they see, and most of what they do. It’s not quite as good as “doing”, but it certainly engages the viewer.

Pink has a new book called Drive, and it’s all about motivation. I haven’t read the book, but the video is, I suspect, a summary of his essential argument. People are not merely motivated by greater immediate reward (e.g. financial). Research indicates that merely rewarding people with more money for a job well done does not lead to optimal long-term performance (motivation). What really motivates people is when they have a greater purpose or meaning in their work, when they have a chance to master a skill, and to make a genuine contribution. In the video Pink cites the case of Steve Jobs, whose main driver has been “to put a ding in the world”. And I particularly like his quote from the founder of Skype, who said his prime goal has been “to be disruptive, but in the cause of making the world a better place.” 

I believe that futurists like me also have a duty to be disruptive, to challenge the status quo. I’ll write a little more about this tomorrow.

If you are a leader, employer or educator, what can you do to increase the motivation of your “team”? What greater purpose are you working towards. Or serving?

Sometimes it comes down to a sense of calling. In my own life and work as a futurist , writer and educator I have always followed the voice of my higher intuition, or Integrated Intelligence, as I call it. Indeed this is what I write about (mostly), and teach people in workshops and public talks. It is that sense of higher purpose which has driven me to keep going, regardless of the great personal cost, and the many setbacks. as has been noted, he who has enough 'why', can endure any "how".

What about you?

Marcus

The Voices of Mars

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 Marcus T Anthony's new web site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.

The Red Planet has always held a great fascination for us humans. It is as if it is calling us from across the relatively short distance of 60 million kilometers that stands between it and the earth (at its closest point). The good news for space enthusiasts is that Barack Obama has just announced that he is committed to sending US astronauts into Mars orbit by the mid-2030s. 

"By 2025 we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first ever crew missions beyond the moon into deep space," Obama told an audience at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

"So, we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to earth, and a landing on Mars will follow."

It’s still a fair way off, but if you are like me, you’ll feel a sense of excitement at this news. Obama went on: "As president, I believe that space exploration is not a luxury, it's not an afterthought in America's quest for a brighter future. It is an essential part of that quest.”

To me, this is always the most important component of any concept, goal or action. Obama spoke of the need for us to forge meaningful and captivating goals, ones that inspire us to a better future. He sees this as an essential part of the American spirit.

The truth is, it’s not an exclusively American “spirit”. The desire to explore transcends national boundaries. It is one of the evolutionary drivers of the human species. I’ve often said that we should follow our excitement as we live our lives; and the same is true for our species as a collective.

 

 It is excitement that calls us forward.

I’ve lived in China and Hong Kong for seven years, and it is the vision and excitement of the Chinese that has transformed the country in the last 30 years. This is what the Chinese call “the spirit of the Chinese people”, and it has produced the miracle economy of the early 21st century. People work harder and better when they have something to hope for, to dream for.  The genuine excitement of the human spirit  calls us forward towards a greater good. Still, the call of “excitement”, this has its dark side – and in China it can be seen in worker exploitation, corruption, greed, environmental destruction and so on. 

The push to explore space also its dangers. It could be used for warfare, and to export our bad habits off-planet (the colonial mindset.). 

This is why we must always check our intention at every step of the way, to see what it is that’s driving us. This is part of what I call the Wisdom Cycle. We must  listen to the spirit/excitement, take action, observe the results, then check the reasons for the success or failure, before repeating the process (at the next level).

As children, we feel the excitement of new adventures every day. We owe it to ourselves, and those who follow us in the future, to initiate noble dreams that take us forward. Answering the call of the voices of Mars is just such a noble quest.

But before I sign off, here’s something quite fascinating about Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, and just happened to be there with Obama as he made public his commitment to Mars. Previously, Aldrin has openly spoken about a monolithic structure on Phobos, the largest of Mars' two relatively small moons. As far as I can gather, he considers that this thing might be of artificial origin. Check it out for yourself.