The Uncertainty Mindset 2019-2020

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motivation

Vaughn Tan22nd January 2021 at 2:00pm

How you get people to do things.

Conventional incentive-based motivation (like a raise, or a bonus, or stock options) work well when the work to be done and the measures of success are clearly understood in advance. It doesn't work so well in situations of uncertainty about how to do the work and how the work should be evaluated. The work of uncertainty (which includes innovation) requires thinking about motivation in terms of forcing functions such as desperation by design. This different way of thinking about motivation is also a result of the uncertainty mindset.

See also: emotion, freedom, goal-setting, negative capability, productive discomfort, routines, strategy.