Daniel Pink

allowing them to get better at something that matters, and infusing the workplace with a sense of purpose, a sense that they're doing something larger than themselves.

That is far more potent and far more enduring than this elaborate regime of carrots and sticks that we've been using for 150 years.

Yes and no.

I'll give you an example.

Let's take something like call centers.

Call centers are very difficult jobs.

They're not particularly interesting.

People are often monitored.

The call center employees are monitored.

Their calls are timed.

When they get a call in, they essentially just have to read a script.

It's low on the autonomy scale.

It's not particularly interesting.

And it's not a job that most of us would covet.

Well, you have a company like Zappos who comes in and deals with its call center in a fundamentally different way.

They say to their call center employees, solve the customer's problem.

Solve the customer's problem.

Do it however you want for as long as you want.

We're not going to monitor you.

We're not going to time you.