Of course, by the very nature of the exercise, paying above the average will work for only about half of you. So get going before your competitors do.
3. IF YOU USE PERFORMANCE METRICS, MAKE THEM WIDE-RANGING, RELEVANT, AND HARD TO GAME
Imagine you’re a product manager and your pay depends largely on reaching a particular sales goal for the next quarter. If you’re smart, or if you’ve got a family to feed, you’re going to try mightily to hit that number. You probably won’t concern yourself much with the quarter after that or the health of the company or whether the firm is investing enough in research and development. And if you’re nervous, you might cut corners to reach your quarterly goal.
Now imagine you’re a product manager and your pay is determined by these factors: your sales for the next quarter; your sales in the current year; the company’s revenue and profit in the next two years; levels of satisfaction among your customers; ideas for new products; and evaluations of your coworkers. If you’re smart, you’ll probably try to sell your product, serve your customers, help your teammates, and, well, do good work. When metrics are varied, they’re harder to finagle.
In addition, the gain for reaching the metrics shouldn’t be too large. When the payoff for reaching targets is modest, rather than massive, it’s less likely to narrow people’s focus or encourage them to take the low road.
To be sure, finding the right mix of metrics is difficult and will vary considerably across organizations. And some people will inevitably find a way to game even the most carefully calibrated system. But using a variety of measures that reflect the totality of great work can transform often counterproductive “if-then” rewards into less combustible “now that” rewards.
Type I for Parents and Educators: Nine Ideas for Helping Our Kids
All kids start out as curious, self-directed Type I’s. But many of them end up as disengaged, compliant Type X’s. What’s going on? Maybe the problem is us—the adults who are running schools and heading families. If we want to equip young people for the new world of work—and, more important, if we want them to lead satisfying lives—we need to break Motivation 2.0’s grip on education and parenting.
Unfortunately, as with business, there’s a mismatch between what science knows and what schools do. Science knows (and you do, too, if you read Chapter 2) that if you promise a preschooler a fancy certificate for drawing a picture, that child will likely draw a picture for you—and then lose further interest in drawing. Yet in the face of this evidence—and as the world economy demands more nonroutine, creative, conceptual abilities—too many schools are moving in the wrong direction. They’re redoubling their emphasis on routines, right answers, and standardization. And they’re hauling out a wagon full of “if-then” rewards—pizza for reading books, iPods for showing up to class, cash for good test scores. We’re bribing students into compliance instead of challenging them into engagement.
We can do better. And we should. If we want to raise Type I kids, at school and at home, we need to help them move toward autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Here are nine ways to start the journey.
APPLY THE THREE-PART TYPE I TEST FOR HOMEWORK
Does the homework bulging from kids’ backpacks truly help them learn? Or does it simply steal their free time in the service of a false sense of rigor? Teachers, before you dole out yet another time-consuming assignment, run it through this Type I homework test by asking yourself three questions:• Am I offering students any autonomy over how and when to do this work?
• Does this assignment promote mastery by offering a novel, engaging task (as opposed to rote reformulation of something already covered in class)?
• Do my students understand the purpose of this assignment? That is, can they see how doing this additional activity at home contributes to the larger enterprise in which the class is engaged?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, can you refashion the assignment? And parents, are you looking at homework assignments every so often to see whether they promote compliance or engagement? Let’s not waste our kids’ time on meaningless exercises. With a little thought and effort, we can then homework into homelearning.
HAVE A FEDEX DAY
In Chapter 4, we learned how the software company Atlassian injects a burst of autonomy into its workplace by setting aside a day each quarter when employees can work on any project they choose, however they want, with whomever they’d like. Why not try this with your students—or even your own sons and daughters? Set aside an entire school day (or a family vacation day) and ask kids to come up with a problem to solve or a project to tackle. In advance, help them collect the tools, information, and supplies they might need. Then let them have at it. The next morning, ask them to deliver—by reporting back to the class or the family on their discoveries and experiences. It’s like Project Runway—only the kids come up with the project themselves, and the reward at the end of the day is the chance to share what they’ve created and all they’ve learned along the way.
TRY DIY REPORT CARDS
Too many students walk through the schoolhouse door with one aim in mind: to get good grades. And all too often, the best way to reach this goal is to get with the program, avoid risks, and serve up the answers the teacher wants the way the teacher wants them. Good grades become a reward for compliance—but don’t have much to do with learning. Meanwhile, students whose grades don’t measure up often see themselves as failures and give up trying to learn.
The Type I approach is different. Report cards are not a potential prize, but a way to offer students useful feedback on their progress. And Type I students understand that a great way to get feedback is to evaluate their own progress.
So try experimenting with the DIY (do it yourself ) report card. At the beginning of a semester, ask students to list their top learning goals. Then, at the end of the semester, ask them to create their own report card along with a one- or two-paragraph review of their progress. Where did they succeed? Where did they fall short? What more do they need to learn? Once students have completed their DIY report cards, show them the teacher’s report card, and let the comparison of the two be the start of a conversation on how they are doing on their path toward mastery. Maybe even include students in any parent-teacher conferences. (Parents: If your child’s teacher won’t go for these DIY report cards, try it yourself at home. It’s another way to prevent school from changing your child’s default setting and turning him from Type I to Type X.)
GIVE YOUR KIDS AN ALLOWANCE AND SOME CHORES—BUT DON’T COMBINE THEM
Here’s why an allowance is good for kids: Having a little of their own money, and deciding how to save or spend it, offers a measure of autonomy and teaches them to be responsible with cash.
Here’s why household chores are good for kids: Chores show kids that families are built on mutual obligations and that family members need to help each other.
Here’s why combining allowances with chores is not good for kids. By linking money to the completion of chores, parents turn an allowance into an “if-then” reward. This sends kids a clear (and clearly wrongheaded) message: In the absence of a payment, no self-respecting child would willingly set the table, empty the garbage, or make her own bed. It converts a moral and familial obligation into just another commercial transaction—and teaches that the only reason to do a less-than-desirable task for your family is in exchange for payment. This is a case where combining two good things give you less, not more. So keep allowance and chores separate, and you just might get that trash can emptied. Even better, your kids will begin to learn the difference between principles and payoffs.
OFFER PRAISE . . . THE RIGHT WAY
Done right, praise is an important way to give kids feedback and encouragement. But done wrong, praise can become yet another “if-then” reward that can squash creativity and stifle intrinsic motivation.
The powerful work of psychologist Carol Dweck, as well as others in the field, offers a how-to list for offering pr
aise in a way that promotes Type I behavior:• Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence. As Dweck’s research has shown, children who are praised for “being smart” often believe that every encounter is a test of whether they really are. So to avoid looking dumb, they resist new challenges and choose the easiest path. By contrast, kids who understand that effort and hard work lead to mastery and growth are more willing to take on new, difficult tasks.
• Make praise specific. Parents and teachers should give kids useful information about their performance. Instead of bathing them in generalities, tell them specifically what they’ve done that’s noteworthy.
• Praise in private. Praise is feedback—not an award ceremony. That’s why it’s often best to offer it one-on-one, in private.
• Offer praise only when there’s a good reason for it. Don’t kid a kid. He can see through fake praise in a nanosecond. Be sincere—or keep quiet. If you overpraise, kids regard it as dishonest and unearned. Plus, overpraising becomes another “if-then” reward that makes earning praise, rather than moving toward mastery, the objective.
HELP KIDS SEE THE BIG PICTURE
In education systems tilted toward standardized tests, grades, and “if-then” rewards, students often have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing. Turn that around by helping them glimpse the big picture. Whatever they’re studying, be sure they can answer these questions: Why am I learning this? How is it relevant to the world I live in now? Then get out of the classroom and apply what they’re studying. If they’re learning Spanish, take them to an office, a store, or a community center where they can actually speak the language. If they’re studying geometry, have them draw up architectural plans for an addition to your school or home. If they’re taking history, ask them to apply what they’ve learned to an event in the news. Think of it as the fourth R: reading, writing, arithmetic . . . and relevance.
CHECK OUT THESE FIVE TYPE I SCHOOLS
Although most schools around the world are still built atop the Motivation 2.0 operating system, a number of forward-thinking educators have long understood that young people are brimming with the third drive. Here are five Type I schools in the United States with practices to emulate and stories to inspire.
• Big Picture Learning. Since 1996, with the opening of its flagship public high school, the Met, in Providence, Rhode Island, Big Picture Learning has been creating places that cultivate engagement rather than demand compliance. Founded by two veteran education innovators, Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor, Big Picture is a nonprofit that now has sixty-plus schools around the United States that put students in charge of their own education. Big Picture kids get the basics. But they also use those basics and acquire other skills by doing real work in the community—all under the guidance of an experienced adult tutor. And instead of easily gamed Motivation 2.0 measurements, Big Picture kids are assessed the way adults are—on work performance, individual presentations, effort, attitude, and behavior on the job. Most of the students at the Met and other Big Picture schools are “at risk” low-income and minority kids who’ve been poorly served by conventional schools. Yet thanks to this innovative Type I approach, more than 95 percent graduate and go on to college. For more information, go to http://www.bigpicture.org/. (Full disclosure: I have served, unpaid, on the board of directors of Big Picture since 2007.)
• Sudbury Valley School. Take a look at this independent school in Framingham, Massachusetts, to see what happens when young kids have genuine autonomy. Working from the assumption that all human beings are naturally curious and that the best kind of learning happens when it’s initiated and pursued by the one doing the learning, Sudbury Valley School gives its students total control over the task, time, and technique of their learning. Teachers and staff are there to help them make things happen. This is a school where engagement is the rule and compliance isn’t an option. For more information, go to http://www.sudval.org/.
• The Tinkering School. More of a lab than a school, this summer program, created by computer scientist Gever Tulley, lets children from seven to seventeen play around with interesting stuff and build cool things. At the headquarters in Montara, California, Tulley’s tinkerers have built: working zip-lines, motorcycles, toothbrush robots, roller coasters, and plastic bag bridges strong enough to hold people. Most of us aren’t able to ship our kids out to California for a week of tinkering, but we can all learn the “Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do.” So take nine minutes to listen to Tulley’s 2007 online TED Talk of that title. Then hand your kids a pocket-knife, some power tools, and a book of matches—and get out of the way. For more information, go to http://www.tinkeringschool.com/ (includes a link to Tulley’s talk).
• Puget Sound Community School. Like Sudbury and Big Picture, this tiny independent school in Seattle, Washington, gives its students a radical dose of autonomy, turning the “one size fits all” approach of conventional schools on its head. Each student has an adviser who acts as her personal coach, helping her come up with her own learning goals. “School” consists of a mixture of class time and self-created independent study projects, along with community service devised by the students. Since youngsters are often away from campus, they gain a clear sense that their learning has a real-world purpose. And rather than chase after grades, they receive frequent, informal feedback from advisers, teachers, and peers. For more information, go to www.pscs.org.
• Montessori Schools. Dr. Maria Montessori developed the Montessori method of teaching in the early 1900s after observing children’s natural curiosity and innate desire to learn. Her early understanding of the third drive spawned a worldwide network of schools, mostly for preschool and primary-aged children. Many of the key tenets of a Montessori education resonate with the principles of Motivation 3.0—that children naturally engage in self-directed learning and independent study; that teachers should act as observers and facilitators of that learning, and not as lecturers or commanders; and that children are naturally inclined to experience periods of intense focus, concentration, and flow that adults should do their best not to interrupt. Although Montessori schools are rare at the junior high and high school levels, every school, educator, and parent can learn from its enduring and successful approach. Meantime, while you’re investigating Montessori, check out two other approaches to learning that also promote Type I behavior: the Reggio Emilia philosophy for the education of young children and the Waldorf schools. For more information, visit these websites: www.montessori-ami.org, www.montessori.org, www.amshq.org, www.reggioalliance.org, and www.whywaldorfworks.org.
TAKE A CLASS FROM THE UNSCHOOLERS
In the United States, the homeschooling movement has been growing at a remarkable pace over the past twenty years. And the fastest-growing segment of that movement is the “unschoolers”—families that don’t use a formal curriculum and instead allow their children to explore and learn what interests them. Unschoolers have been among the first to adopt a Type I approach to education. They promote autonomy by allowing youngsters to decide what they learn and how they learn it. They encourage mastery by allowing children to spend as long as they’d like and to go as deep as they desire on the topics that interest them. Even if unschooling is not for you or your kids, you can learn a thing or two from these educational innovators. Start by reading John Taylor Gatto’s extraordinary book, Dumbing Us Down. Take a look at Home Education Magazine and its website. Then check out some of the many other unschooling sites on the Web. For more information, go to www.homeedmag.com, www.unschooling.com, and www.sandratodd.com/unschooling.
TURN STUDENTS INTO TEACHERS
One of the best ways to know whether you’ve mastered something is to try to teach it. Give students that opportunity. Assign each pupil in a class a different aspect of the broader topic you’re studying—and then have them take turns teaching what they’ve learned to their classmates. And once they’ve got it down, give them a wider audience by inviting other classes, teachers, parents, o
r school administrators to learn what they have to teach.
Also, at the start of a school term, ask students about their individual passions and areas of expertise. Keep a list of your experts, and then call upon them as needed throughout the term. A classroom of teachers is a classroom of learners.
The Type I Reading List: Fifteen Essential Books
Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are integral to the human condition, so it’s no surprise that a number of writers—from psychologists to journalists to novelists—have explored these three elements and probed what they mean for our lives. This list of books, arranged alphabetically by author, isn’t exhaustive—but it’s a good starting point for anyone interested in cultivating a Type I life.
Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
BY JAMES P. CARSE
In his elegant little book, religious scholar Carse describes two types of games. A “finite game” has a winner and an end; the goal is to triumph. An “infinite game” has no winner and no end; the goal is to keep playing. Nonwinnable games, Carse explains, are much more rewarding than the win-lose ones we’re accustomed to playing at our work and in our relationships.
Type I Insight: “Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.”