Peer Review

Dan Pink Speaks on the Science of Motivation

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Reviewed:: Jun 1, 2014 by Business

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Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

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Overview:: Career analyst Dan Pink video presentation examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. He provides a number of examples that demonstrate that it is really intrinsic rewards that are needed for the 21st century worker.
Type of Material:: This is a video presentation of the speaker, Dan Pink.
Recommended Uses:: This video is recommended for in class, lecture, homework, or as a supplement.
Technical Requirements:: For a browser, the viewer will need IE9 or higher, or Chrome or Firefox browsers.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The goal for this video may include comprehending motivators and understanding basic differences between motivators and demotivators in addition to these sub-topics: • How long does it take to complete task when they are right verses left brain task. • How do you “accelerate” activity? • Do “contingent motivators” work? • Intrinsic verses extrinsic motivators • Which type of rewards work best? • Understanding autonomy, mastery and purpose as motivators
Target Student Population:: Depending on how the video is used, it may be useful for upper level high school, business organizations, lower and upper level college including business students, social science students and graduate business students.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Comprehension of conversational English is a prerequisite.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: • The speaker uses research based findings concerning right verses left brain functions. • He talks about facts (evidence based) not feelings or philosophy. • Study concerning how to motivate and reward employees. • The speaker Identifies the “mismatch” between what businesses do verses what the facts indicate should be done. • He explains the carrot verses stick mentality. A transcript is available for ADA purposes or for anyone who wishes to read the presentation.
Concerns:: • Due to this video being web-based delivered, play back frequently has “freezing” issues when you try to navigate to a different portion of the video or if on low bandwidth devices. • At the end of the presentation is a commercial.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: This is a 18 minute video presentation introducing the topic of 21st century worker motivation, giving specific business examples of intrinsic and external motivation. This video is relatively short and easy to comprehend. Other strengths are: • Provides a brief overview of research citing various sources and nationalities • Uses a sense of humor • Studies research from other countries to determine efficacy of the research in a global sense
Concerns:: There is a concern that only viewing presentation is passive learning without student engagement. In addition, Dan Pink, the speaker, talks about “backed up by research” but there is no documentation on the exact research on which he is basing his information.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: The presentation is accessed with one click of the mouse and will display on any mobile devise and any browser. The presentation has a transcript for ADA accommodations. The audio is clear, and the material quality is good.
Concerns:: The presentation does not have any instructions on 'how to' on use. The material link launches into a new browser, to a TED video site, requiring the user to launch the video play back button. There is no context when viewing the video presentation of to whom the speech was delivered, or why, or where.

Other Issues and Comments:: Although presented in 2009, this is a solid review of current trends and findings. This video makes a good contribution and is recommended for inclusion as lecture/study material.
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