Motivation is just a word to describe the natural energy boost that people get when they're connected to their own power source (which can be different for each of us).
When we're at home, do we worry about being motivated? We do the next thing that we need to do, whether it's fun (cuddling the baby or having sex, for instance) or not-so-much-fun (like paying bills, unless you're into that). The motivation is baked into the activity. If we don't pay bills, they turn off the lights eventually. If we don't cuddle the baby, we won't get our baby-cuddle vitamins for the day and neither will our precious baby.
It's no different at work. We've constructed a whole realm of pseudo-science that tries to tell managers they can dial motivation up or down through incentives and penalties. This is one of the most counterproductive and insulting substructures in the Godzilla machine that rules modern-day business, government and academia. We follow a motivation model that features a donkey as a leading character (the donkey is that put-upon creature who chases that carrot and fears the stick). We've forgotten how humans get motivated - how we motivate ourselves, for instance.
We care about things that are interesting and fun, and when we get the voltage we need from our power source at work, no one has to fiddle with carrots or sticks to get us to heave-to. The carrots and the sticks are unnecessary and distracting when we're in the zone where working people naturally go when barriers to passion and creativity come down.
-- Liz Ryan
