Rewards, Punishments, and Motivation

Today we watched a Ted Talk video by Daniel Pink. His idea worth spreading was the science behind motivation. He found that when given tests of mechanical skill the people who were offered rewards did better in those tests. However, when the tests required some creativity the group who was offered rewards usually did worse. I took away from this video that in different situations different motivations are used by those motivated and motivators. Another take away was that if/then rewards work very well for mechanical tasks. I also took away that people who were offered a reward for a test that involved creativity usually did worse and this is usually ignored in the scientific world. I also took away that there is a huge difference between what science knows and what business does. The speaker's effective speaking techniques include loud voice and relatively easy vocabulary. He also gives many examples for each of his points and expands and expands on that one point. His presentation style included his hands as he tried to describe the points and a PowerPoint with pictures of the experiments that he used as a resource. He also acted like a lawyer in some parts of the speech to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this was true. He also highlighted the important words in his PowerPoint to make sure that those words or ideas were noticed and understood. What matters is that motivations like rewards can actually hurt the productivity of an individual. What matters is that most companies still use rewards and punishments as a way to motivate an employee. These apply to me because in education and in the world punishments and rewards are often used as motivators. When in reality it affects the productivity of myself and many in my generation. This is true because in school we receive good grades for doing well on tests and worksheets and this is an example of rewards. These are rewards because when we are getting ready to go to college the rewards we received, in the form of grades, can be a great addition to the application. The punishment in this system would be bad grades and that can really hurt our chances of going to college. The reward at the end of the road is getting into the college where you want to go. The punishment is not getting into that college. This relates to school because school is a system that is based off of rewards and punishments. An example of this is on Reinhardt University's website where it talks about how students who meet certain requirements in honors classes receive a Honors Certificate. This applies to the world because most people who have a job went to school for that job and we are all being raised with the rewards and punishments system. When we are raised on that system and that is all we know that is what we expect and that will seriously damage our creativity and could cause us to hurt our chances of a job. If our chances for a job are hurt because of a set system my generation will struggle but what will happen to people in the generation behind us? Will the system change or will the future be a very tough place to live in?