Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a non-fiction book written by Daniel Pink. The book was published in 2009 by Riverhead Hardcover. It argues that human motivation is largely intrinsic and that the aspects of this motivation can be divided into autonomy, mastery, and purpose.^[1] He argues against old models of motivation driven by rewards and fear of punishment, dominated by extrinsic factors such as money.^[2][3]

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Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Hardcover edition
Author	Daniel H. Pink
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Non-fiction
Publisher	Riverhead Hardcover
Publication date	December 29, 2009
Media type	Print (Hardback), E-book, Audiobook
Pages	256
ISBN	978-1594488849
OCLC	311778265

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The book asserts that based on studies done at MIT and other universities,^[4] higher pay and bonuses result in better performance within the workplace only if tasks consist of basic mechanical skills. If the task involved cognitive skills, decision-making, creativity, or higher-order thinking, higher pay resulted in lower performance. Pink suggests, "You should pay enough to take the issue of money off the table".

To motivate employees who work beyond basic tasks, Pink believes that supporting employees in the following areas will result in increased performance and satisfaction:

• Autonomy – A desire to be self directed, it increases engagement over compliance.
• Mastery – The urge to get better skilled.
• Purpose – The desire to do something that has meaning and is important. Businesses that only focus on profits without valuing purpose will end up with poor customer service and unhappy employees.^[5]

Stefan Stern, writing for the Los Angeles Times calls the book, "short, punchy, energetic and not subtle", praising the writing, but arguing that Pink overstates his case.^[6] In The Guardian, William Leith identifies Drive as vying for attention in "the Gladwell market", but still finds it "inspiring" for its message that thinking of work as art inspires more than the "carrot-and-stick."^[7]