{"id":3135,"date":"2013-02-11T16:22:53","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T21:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2013-02-11T16:52:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T21:52:11","slug":"learning-something-we-knew-all-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2013\/02\/11\/learning-something-we-knew-all-along\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning something we knew all along"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Twice in recent days I’ve had that feeling of “yes, this is so true and I’ve known it’s true but somehow I’ve never heard it articulated so clearly until now.” Like Sociology 101.<\/p>\n

Case #1: How we respond to disasters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rebecca Solnit<\/a> in her book A Paradise Built in Hell <\/em>debunks the long-prevailing opinion–at least among those in power– that disaster response should focus on controlling mass hysteria and illegal behavior.<\/p>\n

I don’t know about you but in my experience people step up and come together for each other in the face of disaster. (Think about the ice storm of ’98<\/a>, or the days following 9-11-01.)<\/p>\n

Solnit is a featured speaker in the SLU Writers Series, this Thursday, 8 pm, in the\u00a0 Sykes Common Room. She’ll also join us on the air this Friday at 11 to talk about human response to disaster–and the disaster experience as a community builder. You’ll want to join this hour-long conversation even if you haven’t read her book.<\/p>\n

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Case #2: Money doesn’t buy great work<\/strong><\/p>\n

I happened to catch the tail end of a TED<\/a> talk by career analyst Dan Pink called “the puzzle of motivation<\/a>.” I paid attention because he was funny, interesting, and I’m the station manager here, allegedly responsible for motivating the staff.<\/p>\n

AMP. I drummed this acronym into my head because it made so much sense to me.\u00a0 In a nutshell, what research has shown (and I urge you to check out the talk for more details on that research) is that productivity is NOT related to monetary bonuses: that’s not to say a fair salary isn’t important, but additional financial awards may actually decrease productivity and creativity. This applies most powerfully to people working in non-repetitive jobs.<\/p>\n

These three workplace conditions drive the highest levels of performance: autonomy, mastery and purpose. AMP. Oh heck, just check out the video. You knew this was true, but Dan Pink says it better than I’ve ever heard it said before.<\/p>\n

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