Are we Motivated by Midpoints? (and Endpoints?)


Daniel Pink (renown author of "Drive" - and the surprising truth about what motivates us https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc where we learned that throwing money at people doesn't help, autonomy, mastery and purpose do)...

He has recently shifted his focus to the importance of timing, including a book called "When". 

An interesting data/fact/research driven conclusion is that people are highly effected by temporal events like in 'mid life crisis' or running more marathons at 29, 39 or 49 years old are motivated by midpoints and endpoints.

Having short sprints in Scrum (say 2 weeks) forces people to focus and prioritize on delivery, not on some unattainable long term obscure vision, but a concrete step in the right direction of accomplishing that vision.

Scrum, once again, leverages human strength and has 'built in' to the system behavior that leverages human strength, not human weakness.  The more research emerges about how humans ACTUALLY behave, the more we see why Agile and Scrum (when done correctly) are so effective.


Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your feedback!

Popular posts from this blog

The Agile Framework (Parody) - By Dan Greenberg

Image
Agile The Comprehensive Guide What is Agile? There's a new framework in town and it's called Agile. It's very simple, in fact there are only three roles and two ceremonies. Try it and let us know what you think! Agile Has 3 Roles Agile Has 2 Ceremonies Daily Status Update When : Every morning at 9AM Format The Boss receives a status report for each ticket on the group's board                                        e.g. "I made progress on this yesterday and will continue progress today" Anyone who has not yet spoken must now speak up and convince the Boss they are indeed doing work                                   e.g. "Though it is not represented on the board, I did work yesterday and will continue                                                   to  do work today." The Meeting Facilitator ensures that a status is given for every ticket on the board and that every person in the group has adequately proven that they are working      2. Every-Other
Read more

How To Be An Effective Product Owner (The Getting Ready for Work Game) - By Dan Greenberg

Image
  Purpose: Learn the art of prioritization Tools: If you are in a big room, each participant will need a pad of post-its and a wall on which to work. If you are virtual, have each participant use a designated “wall” on their section of the virtual board. You may have to be creative. Round One: Write down everything you did this morning between waking up and arriving at work, one activity per post-it. Also on each one write down the amount of time that activity took. EXAMPLE Add up the total amount of time – in this example, 110 minutes. So, in this example, let’s say your alarm went off this morning at 7:00 AM and you sat down at your desk ready to work at 8:50 AM. Round Two: You hit the snooze a couple of times this morning and didn’t get out of bed until 7:20 AM but you are still required to be sitting at your desk ready to work at 8:50 AM. Having lost 20 minutes, which post-its will you eliminate from your morning? You decide to forgo your shave (5-o-clock shadow is in style these d
Read more