Discuss
a time when you’ve seen one of the seven deadly flaws of carrots and sticks in
action. What lessons might you or others learn from the experience? Have you
seen instances when carrots and sticks have been effective.
We have created a system at our school designed to encourage
and reward students for doing “good deeds”. Actions such as helping other
students or teachers, being kind and considerate, setting a good example for
others, and exhibiting patience in the face of adversity are examples of behaviors
that may acknowledged with 'Caught Being Good' awards. A simple green certificate
indicating a student’s name, what they did, and who is acknowledging it is
given out during morning assembly. Similar to Lepper et. al.'s experiment with pre-school children highlighted in Drive (Pink, 2011), I found
that when students were not expecting to get 'Caught being Good', and also when
they are not rewarded for it, benevolent behaviors persist because they seem to
be intrinsically motivated.
On the contrary, when students who have received a referral
for misbehaving are given the option of removing it by performing ‘good deeds’,
they rarely repeat such deeds unsolicited. This type of if-then scenario has
proven to be ineffective just as experiments in Pink’s book Drive (2011) indicated.
Another interesting point that Pink makes is that praise is
good when done in the appropriate way. He suggests:
1. Praise
the effort and the strategy, not the intelligence. With our ‘Caught being Good’
plan, we should take the same advice and make sure that we are praising the
effort and the deed, not the ‘goodness’ of the child.
2. Make
Praise Specific. This is what is currently being done.
3. Praise
in private. This is a recommendation that we should consider implementing.
Instead of publicly praising students during morning assemblies, doing so
privately would increase intrinsic motivation according to Pink.
4. Offer
praise only when there is good reason for it. I have found this to be
especially true for middle school students, especially those who have had
behavioral problems. Praising them without good reason actually seems to cause
more resentment than encouragement.
As
you think about your own best work, what aspect of autonomy has been most
important to you? Autonomy over what you do (task), when you do it (time), how
you do it (technique), or with whom you do it (team)?...
My best work is done when I have autonomy over what I do. I
don’t appreciate constant micromanaging because it indicates a lack of
confidence and trust in one’s ability to carry out projects, tasks, or
responsibilities. I also find that continual lack of autonomy over what I do
tends to diminish my sense of moral, self-efficacy, and creativity. On the
other hand, I do appreciate having some structure. As such, working with a
timeline and also some guidance about techniques or expectations helps me to
prioritize when things need to get done and gives me ideas of how to best go
about the job at hand. Overall, I think that flexibility and balance on both the part of
the “principal” and the “agent” (Drive, 2011) is key. There are occasions
when we need to do what is asked or expected and may not have as much autonomy as we prefer
in one area or another. Like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, we need to be flexible in such situations and able to
adapt accordingly. On the other hand, whenever possible we should try and
understand what best motivates others and be willing
to give them the autonomy they need to thrive.
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